Toobin cites Supreme Court Justice Brennan on this distinction:īRENNAN : 'What is the most important law for the Supreme Court?'ĬLERKS: 'The first amendment?' 'The fourth amendment?'īRENNAN: 'No, it's 'the law of 5'.'. The interesting aspect of the book is that Toobin considers the Supreme Court justices from a political perspective - i.e., Toobin writes as a CNN pundit doing political analysis, rather than as a lawyer doing legal analysis. It does descend occasionally into jargon like 'denied cert', but explains the terms in layman's terms (that jargon means that the Supreme Court declined to hear a case, via a 'writ of certiorari,' which means the original court ruling stands). it's a good book for people interested in the Supreme Court from an institutional perspective, not from a legalistic perspective. The book is in 'plain English,' more or less - i.e. The author, Jeffery Toobin, was a lawyer who became a CNN pundit. The book provides a deep profile of the mostly un-profiled lives of Supreme Court justices, including their career history and the reasoning behind their important judicial decisions. It covers both Clinton and Bush appointees, and hence actually covers more than a dozen people (just nine at any one time!). This book is a multiple biography of 'The Nine' Supreme Court justices in the period from the 1990s until 2008. OR click on an issue category below for a subset. Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court,Ĭlick on a participant to pop-up their full list of quotationsįrom The Nine, by Jeffrey Toobin (number of quotes indicated): (click a book cover for a review or other books by or about the presidency from ) Books by and about 2020 presidential candidatesīy Jeff Wilser (2019 biography of Joe Biden)īooks by and about the 2016 presidential election

The nine toobin