The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court
by Jeffrey Toobin
View on GoodreadsFor decades the conservative campaign to remake the Supreme Court kept running into moderates, above all Sandra Day O'Connor. Toobin, drawing on interviews with justices and more than 75 clerks, follows it until 2005, when O'Connor retired and Rehnquist died and President Bush could install a more reliably conservative Court.
Core ideas
- Bush v. Gore: The decision troubled David Souter so deeply that he considered resigning from the Court.
- O'Connor's break: She grew estranged from the Bush presidency, and her successor Samuel Alito had backed a spousal-notification abortion rule she rejected in 1992.
- Unattributed sourcing: Most of the interviews aren't attributed, which Kirkus faulted, since you can't weigh a claim you can't trace.
Published2007
Pages384
ISBN9780385516402
ReadJun 2026
