More Delicious SCOTUS Press Corps Navel-Gazing
More good press for Jeffrey Toobin's new book, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. It scored a front-page review in the New York Times Book Review, which is the Holy Grail of the publishing industry.
But we're partial to this great Slate piece, by Emily Bazelon and Dahlia Lithwick (two of our favorite Supreme Court correspondents). Bazelon and Lithwick conduct a meta-review of critical reactions to Jeff Toobin's book, which they use as a jumping off point for broader reflections on media coverage of the Court. They include a generous shout-out to ATL:
One of the oddest byproducts of the Internet has been the growth industry that is the Supreme Court gossip blog. These folks are less interested in the court as the place where Law Is Born, or where Politics Really Come From, and more fascinated by which clerks are sleeping with whom, and how much they earn while doing it.No blog has a better bead on those items than David Lat's Above the Law. Sure, ATL invariably tends to reduce the entire sweep of modern constitutional history to a form of girl-on-girl Jell-O-wrestling. But then at bottom, what else is there?
As one reader jokingly suggested, "Looks like your Facebook group membership finally paid off!"
Nine Ways To Read The Nine [Slate]
Meet the Supremes [New York Times Book Review]
(8) Comments
Firsty First!
WHY DO PEOPLE CARE SO MUCH ABOUT SCOTUS? It's not like they make decisions outside of whether they are liberal and conservative. It's not like I can't predict what they will do, regardless of the law.
Let's talk about making $$ and getting raises sicne no one truly cares about the law, just making $$ and getting out.
Stop doing posts about this book - nobody gives a shit.
Toobin is speaking at Skadden (NYC) today. Free copies of the book for all - and free lunch too.
yawn ...
I can't take anything written in Slate seriously. They quote Wikipedia to back up the credibility of their stories, for crying out loud.
But I love the blog, guys.
The proof that Slate has missed the mark is that the comments are so strikingly sparse when it comes to SCOTUS gossip. Just look at this thread. It's pathetic. Six comments before this one, three of which express boredom, and only one "First!" comment. I'll bet an Alan Greenspan speech could get a bigger reaction from your readers.
Am I the only former UTR reader left? Where are the people who care about the federal judiciary? Have they been pushed away by the LEWW posts and constant calls for 190?
4:38 - I bet that many of the former UTR readers are still here. (I am one myself.)
I think it just goes to show that even if UTR was more insider-ish and "cool," ATL has a much larger readership. Those readers are more interested in pay raises than federal judicial gossip.
Why would LEWW push away former UTR readers? In its fixation on the nuptials of SCOTUS clerks, LEWW is of a piece with UTR.