The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey ToobinMy review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
I do not remember why I ended up buying this book, but I am glad I did. It was a very interesting read about one of the most mysterious and prestigious positions in our country -- the Supreme Court. This book takes you through the recent history of the Court and shows how the changes in ideology on the Court have shaped our laws today. The author is more liberal than I typically like to read, but he does not attack the Court for its decision in most cases, except the Bush v. Gore decision. It is interesting to read about the personalities behind the judges. Of course, Scalia lets you know what he is like through his opinions, but many of the other justices on the Court remain a mystery. This book does a great job of personalizing the justices. Also, it is an interesting look at the balance of power that our country and our constitution is based upon.
For persons who are not interested in legal matters, this book is not for you. For people who do not really know how the legal system works, I think that the book would be easy enough to read with a few internet searchs to figure out what some legal terms mean. At times the book drops names that apparently the author thinks the audience should know, but I didn't, so it can seem a bit elitist at times. However, all of that did not take away from the book. It was an easy read because of the way the storyline was woven together, although the author did not dumb down the book. In fact, in an interesting way, the author seemed to choose language to describe the justices that the justices would approve of -- i.e., big, grand words for Scalia. All in all the book was worth reading, and the four stars is probably because of the disapproval of the conservative takeover of the Court which is subtly attacked throughout the book with a few explicit attacks that are not quite incendiary enough for me to not recommend the book.
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