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| The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court | 
 enlarge | Creator: Jeffrey Toobin
Publisher: Random House Audio
Category: Book
List Price: $31.95
Buy New: $18.39
You Save: $13.56 (42%)
New (30) Used (9) from $16.98
Avg. Customer Rating:  163 reviews
Sales Rank: 107280
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Abridged
Number Of Items: 5
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.8 x 5.5 x 1.1
ISBN: 0739354590
Dewey Decimal Number: 347.7326
EAN: 9780739354599
ASIN: 0739354590
Publication Date: September 18, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
A grain of salt.. September 21, 2007
35 out of 44 found this review helpful
As we move toward the 2008 elections, this book sheds light on a vital arm of our government, and important issues framing the debates. Yes, Toobin may be showing his liberal leanings, but is this so unsettling in our free-speaking democratic society? What Toobin does well -- and is so qualified to do so -- is to share his wealth of knowledge and perspective on that all-important yet all-too-secretive government branch. He succeeds in enlightening us -- and probably, regarding some aspects, the justices themselves -- on several influential developments. One, as pointed out by a previous reviewer, being the courts growing dependence on decisions made abroad. The book is readable and informative...take the liberal leanings with a grain of salt..
 Informative and biased November 11, 2007
33 out of 44 found this review helpful
The Nine is an account of the present U.S. Supreme Court. The author tries to present each justice as a personality, not just a legal entity. He delves into their personal histories, describing their families and friends. He also describes their interactions, and the day to day workings of the court. Toobin is a good writer, and the book is engaging and easy to read. It is clear that a large amount of research was done in the making of this tome.
It may be impossible to write a politically neutral book about the court. This author gives a fleeting impression of such an attempt, but by the second chapter, there is no doubt that he is a partisan observer. As he describes the major players in his narrative, the liberal ones receive high praise, while the conservative ones are mainly portrayed as hypocrites or worse. Toobin describes liberals as "distinguished," "respected," or "venerable," while conservatives earn such adjectives as "petty," "vindictive," or "reactionary." Some conservatives do receive acknowledgement for redeeming qualities, but their negatives usually overshadow the positives. He seems to be extremely fond of O'Connor, who was in the middle of the political spectrum.
When he writes about individual cases, rather than presenting the arguments, Toobin argues points of law from his own perspective. He focuses on the side that he agrees with, mentioning the opposing arguments briefly and dismissively. He occasionally argues against his own prior positions. Although he ridicules the conservative position that the federal government is too often interfering with state's rights, he is outraged by the court's interference in state's rights during the 2000 presidential election. Many people are on both sides of this argument, since ideology usually trumps principles. Indeed, Toobin writes that the justice's ideology "means everything" in the court. In The Nine, ideology trumps objectivity.
If you believe that most left leaning legal minds in America are intelligent and caring, while the conservative ones are mostly dishonest dullards or evil extremists, this book will not challenge you. I wanted a greater insight into the workings of the court, and I did not find it here.
 A Brief for the 2008 Election October 16, 2007
31 out of 58 found this review helpful
Few in this genre have succeeded quite like Woodward and Armstrong's, The Brethren. Toobin joins the ranks of those who have missed the mark. The book's biggest failing, by far, is its cynicism and inability to maintain any pretense of objectivity. Toobin's writing just seems incapable of rising above catty partisanship. Justice Scalia, to take just one example, is constantly portrayed as an angry man who is just one bad day away from going postal. With that established, no effort is made to engage either him or originalism in an intellectually honest way. And so it goes. Liberals, good. Conservatives, bad. Evangelicals and the Federalist Society, very bad. Ultimately the book is nothing more than a thinly veiled democratic brief for the 2008 election, arguing, ironically, the message of David Savage's 1992 book, Turning Right: The sky is falling! In Savage's view, the addition of Justice Kennedy was a harbinger of a coming constitutional ice age. History-- and Kennedy-- has unfolded somewhat differently. I expect Toobin's prognostications to be as dated as Savage's ten years hence.
Not a very balanced book October 15, 2007
22 out of 44 found this review helpful
While Toobin helps to strip away the facade that the Supremes are somehow able to rise above their personal views and look at the law through the lenses of the intent of the authors of the Constitution vs. their own life experiences, he is fairly unbalanced in his evaluations of the nine members of the court.
The legal lightweights such as O'Connor, Kennedy, Ginsburg, get a lot of ink, but not much in the way of analysis of their political opinions writ into interpretations of the law. As usual, Thomas' opinions are not read on their merits, but on the theology of the author, which makes for fairly dishonest writing.
This book will be worth buying once its price settles down to a dollar or two, but don't expect to have much of an insight into why the Court is the real prize when electing a President. The original framers of the Constitution were correct in worrying about the power of this third branch of government since their opinions can have far more effect on society over a longer term than the politicians they demanded be elected every few years, (or appointed by legislatures in the case of the Senate before direct election was brought with the 17th Amendment)
 This is a good book September 22, 2007
21 out of 35 found this review helpful
There are only a few books that get inside this institution, The Brethren being the first a few decades ago. Toobin writes well, and does his homework, but the Court has done some polarizing acts over the last generation, e.g., Roe v Wade, Bush v Gore, that lead some reviewers to tag liberal or conservative labels. Roe v. Wade wasn't necessary---the States were legitimizing abortion, so it could have been decided by deferring to the States rather than establishing a new Constitutional right---and Bush v Gore was just corrupt, so the Court pays for its mistakes. It will be a long time before the Court becomes a respectable place, again.
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