The nine by jeffrey toobin5/22/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Of course, as Margolick observes, the professors are as hopelessly, if differently, compromised as the rest of us. THE ACADEMICS In some sense, the small army of constitutional law professors across the land have always been a parallel Supreme Court press corps, with the job of reading the opinions as “law” rather than as politics. And yet despite all the access, Margolick is forced to conclude that Toobin doesn’t have much fresh meat: “The greatest surprise is that there are few great surprises” because Toobin’s “buddies on the bench didn’t tell him much we don’t already know.” What’s Margolick’s diagnosis for why The Nine disappoints? Toobin didn’t talk to enough law clerks-which just happens to be how Margolick got a big scoop a few years ago about the infighting between the justices when deciding Bush v. ![]() Here we have Toobin, off his duff reporting, burning bridges to the justices forever (in this case, Anthony Kennedy). Although it contradicts Margolick’s first argument, about the virtue of Supreme Court reporters getting out to do more reporting. In this book, as in others about the Supreme Court, you can tell which justices talked most to the author based on which ones (in this case, Sandra Day O’Connor) are rendered most lovingly. He’s got the access-as Margolick points out. So, Margolick wants Toobin to do much, much better. ![]()
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