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ArtVM - The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court
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List Price: $15.95
Our Price: $9.23
Your Save: $ 6.72 ( 42% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Anchor
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 347.7326
EAN: 9781400096794
ISBN: 1400096790
Label: Anchor
Manufacturer: Anchor
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 480
Publication Date: 2008-09-09
Publisher: Anchor
Release Date: 2008-09-09
Studio: Anchor
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Humanizing the intricate process of the highest court
Comment: This was an educational, yet easy and fun book to read about many interesting facts about the history and current issues of the court. To learn about the system that constantly changes, and is often subject to luck, human frailties, and personalities, and yet has manintained the balance most of the time is both frightening and comforting. In the end, I found all of the justices, and even the ones that I have never respected, quite remarkable in their own ways of doing their duties. The intellectual maturity and integrity of (some) justices to work collaboratively through their differences for the common good, certainly made me appreciate their services.
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Summary: An Intimate Look Inside the Most Exclusive Enclave in America
Comment: As only Jeffrey Toobin can do, he paints a deep and rich picture of the inner sanctum of the Supreme Court.
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Summary: Fine work but not a good read
Comment: This is a book based on fine research, good judgment, and intelligent analysis. but it is not very exciting a read. And the fault is not Mr. Toobin's at all. It is just that supreme court judges, like many judges and lawyers, are just not very interesting people. The law is for intelligent but uninteresting people who are really not good company, not persons with whom you would want to have a beer.
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Summary: Worthwhile and Important Read
Comment: The lawyer and New Yorker contributor Jeffrey Toobin's main argument in his informative and insightful "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court" is that for two decades Sandra Day O'Connor has been the most influential member of the Rehnquist Supreme Court. And that's good for the American people because Justice O'Connor, even though appointed by Ronald Reagan and a stalwart of the Republican Party, has sought in her long and storied career to best reflect and represent the interests and opinions of the American people. Without her and her benevolent influence over the otherwise mercurial and bombastic Anthony Kennedy the Supreme Court would have long struck down Roe v. Wade and affirmative action.
In Toobin's analysis the Supreme Court can be divided into three main factions. There is the liberal faction as best represented by John Paul Stevens, who seeks to interpret the "spirit of the law" to maintain America's dynamic democracy. Then there is the conservative faction best represented by Antonio Scalia who emphasizes the original intention of the Founding Fathers and the actual words of the Constitution. This liberal-conservative ideological breach is primarily the result of Roe v. Wade, and Justice Harry Blackmun's decision. In his decision Justice Blackmun permitted the right to abortion based on the "right to privacy," and although the Constitution does not mention once "privacy" he makes the contorted and controversial argument that the right is implied in different parts of the sacred document. Roe v. Wade represents to conservative lawyers a liberal activist court (the Warren Supreme Court) that instead of interpreting law makes law.
Then there are the three justices who have come to dominate the Supreme Court with their swing votes: Sandra Day O'Connor, David Souter, and Anthony Kennedy. O'Connor tries to best represent popular opinion in her decisions, Souter believes in the wisdom of the law and thus rely on precedent for his decisions, and although Kennedy doesn't have a theory of the law he believes judges are like King Solomon. Together the three, although appointed by Republican Presidents, have mostly believed in the power of precedent and preserved the Warren Court decisions. And as the Republican Party has become more conservative and thus more hostile they have gradually swung to the left, marginalizing Justice Scalia, Justice Clarence Thomas, and Chief Justice William Rehnquist on the right. As Mr. Toobin noted poignantly, the American public would forever hold these three "swing vote" justices in high esteem if it were not their decision -- against all they've stood for and fought for -- to participate in the 2000 Presidential Election, and thus send George W. Bush to the White House. And, as was usually the case, Justice O'Connor made the final decisive vote.
It would be a decision she would come to regret. O'Connor had a particular fondness for George W. Bush, seeing his ideology of "compassionate conservatism" akin to her own. But the way that President Bush conducted the "war on terror" horrified her, and the Supreme Court worked hard to limit what Bush saw as his executive prerogative. As well, to appease his conservative base, Bush made sure to put two solid conservatives on the bench, conservatives that would vote according to doctrine and ideology as opposed to O'Connor's moderate pragmatism. With John Roberts and Samuel Alito the Supreme Court suddenly swung hard right.
Anthony Kennedy is now the "swing vote," a position he relishes -- and without O'Connor to influence him Kennedy now is free to pursue his own agenda, even if no one is sure what that is. In the Roberts Court Justice Kennedy has usually sided with the conservatives but he has at times also sided against them. But the real issue isn't what the Court does now but what it promises to do. Three of the four liberal judges -- Stevens, Souter, and Ginsburg -- will all retire soon, and if the Republicans can put one more conservative on the bench then they'll have an unbreakable majority, and the conservative agenda of reversing the Warren Court will finally be reality. It all depends on who the next President is.
That's the main reason why Mr. Toobin's book is such compelling reading. At the very end he reminds us that the nine justices are not there to just interpret the Constitution -- they're also there to represent the ideology of the President who put them there, and that's why in a roundabout way the American people also elect the Supreme Court. His book incisively and insightfully shows us why the 2008 election is so important.
There are two main problems with this book, and both stem from the fact that Mr. Toobin is a lawyer. The first is diction. He's usually a clear writer but now and then he chooses to burden his writing with legal jargon. The second is organization. On one hand Mr. Toobin is a lawyer, and so he writes what comes what is naturally to him: a lawyer's brief on the nine justices. On the other hand Mr. Toobin chooses to tell the story chronologically. And while there aren't any obvious contradictions and redundancies thanks to Mr. Toobin's meticulous editing the book nevertheless does feel disorganized and scrambled.
The reading wasn't pleasurable but it was certainly worthwhile.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Nine
Comment: The Nine was a behind the scenes look at the members of the Supreme Court, with comments on their personalities and decisions. The background research was fascinating with regard to the cases. Mr. Toobin was much too biased in his presentation, and it showed in the distinct adjectives he used to describe those decisions that did not fit his political paradigm, or to describe the personalities who did not vote the way he deemed they should. Too bad about that. Otherwise, it was quite informative.
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Editorial Reviews:
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In The Nine, acclaimed journalist Jeffrey Toobin takes us into the chambers of the most important—and secret—legal body in our country, the Supreme Court, revealing the complex dynamic among the nine people who decide the law of the land. An institution at a moment of transition, the Court now stands at a crucial point, with major changes in store on such issues as abortion, civil rights, and church-state relations. Based on exclusive interviews with the justices and with a keen sense of the Court’s history and the trajectory of its future, Jeffrey Toobin creates in The Nine a riveting story of one of the most important forces in American life today.
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