The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court (edit title)

• Rated 3 stars

“ Interesting account of the personalities and politics in the Supreme Court.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Fascinating look at how the Supremes really work.”

• Rated 5 stars

“Toobin does a great job in detailing the personalities of the justices and how they shape the court. Thomas is the most interesting, perhaps. A man obviously bitter about the cards he has been dealt, he holds grudges seemingly forever, even disdaining Yale Law School, his alma mater; yet, he is very well liked and has lots of friends on and off the court. (Scalia, asked once for the difference between himself and Thomas, replied, "I am an originalist; he's a nut.) Thomas would overturn piles of precedent on principle -- he's a huge fan of Ayn Rand -- and a proponent of limiting the power of federal law, but contradictorily sponsoring law clerks who went on to provide legal justification for presidential power expansion under Bush. Go figure.

One concern I had about Thomas was the large number of gifts he accepted from very conservative organizations and people. He got the largest book deal of any justice, 1.5 million from book he wrote from Rupert Murdoch and he makes huge amounts of money in speaking engagements before conservative audiences (he refuses to speak to any audience that might be remotely unfriendly.) Breyer, on the other hand, accepts no gifts or travel from anyone. You can't tell me that getting all that money and travel from a particular political spectrum has no effect.”

• Rated 4 stars

“Interesting review of the Supreme Court, but I still prefer fiction.”

• Rated 3 stars

“I have always been interested in the supreme court justices and this has some interesting anecdotes about past and present justices of the court. Just started it and I am enjoying it so far.”

• Rated 0 stars

“very informative”

• Rated 0 stars

“a little slow going for me, but really fascinating!”

• Rated 4 stars

“Fantastic information, and a little scary to think about the human failings of the highest court.”

• Rated 5 stars

“This was a very good learning tool. I now have a totally different view of how the Supreme Court runs.”

• Rated 0 stars

“Fascinating information. Sorry I missed the discussion group about it because I had to work. They had someone from the NJ Supreme Court speaking at the group.”