The Nine Inside the Superme Court

The Nine & Justice O’Connor

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court is a 2007 non-fiction book by legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. Based in part on exclusive interviews with the justices and former law clerks, Toobin profiles the justices of the United States Supreme Court, the functioning of that institution, and how it has changed over the years. In The Nine, Toobin goes into the chambers of the most important and secretive legal body in the nation revealing the complex dynamics 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.

The book covers the changing philosophical approach of U.S. Supreme Court justices from the end of Chief Justice Earl Warren’s time on the court to the end of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and through the tender beginnings of Chief Justice John G. Roberts’ time on the court. During this time Toobin discusses another philosophical shift in the court as a direct result of a planned attack by extreme conservative groups in an attempt to enforce their political and ideological viewpoints.

Above all other, two aspects of the time frame of Tobbin’s writing are especially interesting. The first aspect being, how the politics of the nation affect the Court. Despite Cass Gilberts desire to separate the court from the rest of the political mayhem of the capital, “with its massive and imposing stairway (Tobbin 1)”. The Court seems to be politically driven as the rest of D.C. The second aspect of the court, the reading exposed was just how profound Roe v. Wade was on all aspects of law from its inception. From the main streets of America, to the halls of Congress, to the White House, and most especially the chambers of the Justices that decision above all others shaped the course of the nation and the face of the court.

To the first of...