This is one of my favorite books on the U.S. Supreme Court. It covers the court and its individual justices from roughly 1985 to 2007. It is excellent in weaving together biography, law, and politics. Most books do one of these well. Toobin succeeds at all three. In particular, I highly recommend the chapter on Clarence Thomas (Chp. 8), which humanizes him without absolving him. Part II, on the infamous Bush v. Gore decision, is also excellent and shows how it was a turning point in the politicization of the court. Sandra Day O’Connor emerges as a heroine of sorts, and I found myself wishing we had someone like her on the Court today: a justice who could intuit the political middle ground and find a clear path to it using legal precedent and common sense. If you want a starting place to understand the Supreme Court in 2022, especially after the Dobbs decision, this is a great book. Other material worth reading include Anthony Lewis’s Gideon’s Trumpet, the Federalist Papers, or Justice Antonin Scalia’s scathing but amusing opinions.
