The Nine, Inside the Secret World of THE SUPREME COURT by Jeffrey Toobin (2007)

The Nine seems to be that book that everyone has heard of but no one has read. No worries, read my review instead.

I have to admit my interest in this book is fill the gaps of my knowledge of the United States, and to continue to understand the times I am living in, which is sometimes spurred by the constant right-wing extremist rhetoric that come across.

The Toobin book is not linear history of the Supreme Court. It goes far back as 1972, but it picks up in the Reagan era, and it ends in 2006. The author travels in an odd pattern of telling the story. He jumps around a lot but somehow it works. At one time you are in 2002 and then back in 1992 and so on.

At best this book charts the Right wing of the Republican Party taking over of the court by the second Bush administration. It highlights a bit the division within the Republican party between the moderates and the Evangelical Christian right, which eventually the latter have completely taking over in the second Bush presidency.

Toobin mostly focuses on Sandra Day O’Connor. She was a Reagan appointee in 1981. She might not have been chosen to the court if Kenneth Star, who was in charge of her background check, had done with his homework to see that she had ruled on abortion cases. O’Connor, much like Bush former Treasury secretary Paul O’Neil, was pushed to the left as the far right came into power; not so much by a change of mind, but rather as the Party went to further to right, it left many behind. Both went from loyal conservatives to outspoken critics of the George W. Bush White House. \

O’Connor was the swing vote for almost 25 years, and she decided tone and outcome of many of the courts biggest cases with those 25 years from Abortion to Bush v. Gore.

The book is neither too deep in legalese; meaning you don’t have to a lawyer to read it, neither is it dumbed down. In fact, I hear that the book is popular amongst lawyers.

My biggest criticism of the book is that I felt the author could have gone further into the cases that the Supreme Court ruled on. For example, I wanted full explanation of Bush v. Gore, but I felt that he barely touched the subject.

I thought what the The Nine did best was give the reader a solid understanding of the Rehnquist Supreme Court and then give a good taste of the Roberts’ Supreme Court. Both are very different. Both court represent the very different sides of the Republican Party, and to borrow the phrase from John Edwards, although he never meant it this way, represent the two different Americas.

The Supreme Court as it stands right now is George W. Bush’s biggest triumph and lasting legacy. Love it or hate it, it’s the law of the land. Toobin shows the last thirty years of the court in rational and compressive manor.