Under the Robes: More from 'The Nine'
We've been writing a fair amount about Jeffrey Toobin's exciting new book, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. Its scheduled publication date is September 18, but we've gotten our grubby paws on a copy. We'll have more to say after we've read it.
In the meantime, check out this great report from ABC News, which highlights some of the book's juiciest parts. It mentions the business about a crying Justice Souter, which is already old news, but it also has these tidbits:
* The decision to rush the swearing-in of Justice Clarence Thomas spared the controversial nominee the publication of more embarrassing personal revelations than Anita Hill's notorious testimony. That same day, three Washington Post reporters were set to write a story about Thomas' extensive taste for pornography, including accounts from eyewitnesses such as the manager of his local video store. "But since Thomas had been sworn in, the Post decided not to pursue the issue and dropped the story."* Former Chief Justice Warren Burger, an Anglophile who collected antiques and fine wines, was so vain that "he placed a large cushion on his center seat on the bench, so he would appear taller than his colleagues."
* Rehnquist was not impressed with Bill Clinton and his wife. When told that the newly elected president was thinking of nominating Hillary as attorney general, the chief justice quipped, "They say Caligula appointed his horse counsel [consul?] of Rome."
Plus there's a great story about the justices trying to get to the Court during a snowstorm -- lawlessness and hilarity ensue -- and some gossip about Justice Souter's love life. Read the full article here.
Meanwhile, in other Jeffrey Toobin news, he's conducting an awesome event later this month at the New Yorker Festival. It's a conversation about the future of the Supreme Court, featuring two of our favorite members of the Elect: Rachel Brand (OT 2002 / Kennedy) from the right, and Neal Katyal (OT 1996 / Breyer) from the left.
We wouldn't miss it for the world. If you'd like to attend, ticket information is available here. Tickets to Festival events go on sale at 12 noon E.T. on September 15th, at ticketmaster.com -- and they tend to go fast. So mark your calendars!
Under the Robes: Secrets of the Supreme Court [ABC News]
Rachel Brand, Neal Katyal, and Jeffrey Toobin: The Future of the Supreme Court [New Yorker Festival]
(30) Comments
FIIIIIIIIIIIRSSSSSSST...twice in a day, damn, im good...thats gotta be a record!!!
Re: the justices trying to get to the Court during a snowstorm, I offer this true story from a (far) “inferior” California State court.
As a young lawyer, I got a call at midnight from an experienced lawyer: “Do you want try a murder case for the glory’?
Responding in the affirmative, I was soon embroiled in a two day preliminary examination in Lower Lake, California. But at 3:00 pm on the first day, the prosecutor approached me and explained that due to unseasonable (and unheard-of) snow fall, the road to Lakeport was about to be closed and the court had decide to adjourn early.
So, the judge, my client’s wife (a three-time felon-hooker with a 4” black stripe in the middle of long ago bleached hair), and I all piled into the deputy DA’s LTD for a bsack-road run to Lakeport against the snowfall.
At tad more interesting (to me at the time) than justices trying to beat the snow…..
LAT:
this deserves a shout-out re gullible lawyers.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=2497
huh?
5:47, I hope your masturbatory tale soothes your apparent chronic lack of self-esteem. You are not a SCOTUS justice; you fail to understand that what's interesting about the Supremes getting caught in a snow storm isn't the storm and the delay - it's the fact that THEY, the Supremes, were caught in a snow storm.
Additionally, while I've always had respect for Rehnquist, after reading the above account my opinion of him went through the roof. RIP, Chief. The interesting thing is that Bill does have a lot in common with Caligula, and Hill has a lot in common - at least in appearance - with the horse.
"Among the gifts [Justice Thomas has] received from admirers: a Bible once owned by Frederick Douglass, tires and $5,000 for his grandnephew's education."
Tires?
ironic that Nixon thought Rehnquist was Jewish...
ironic that Nixon thought Rehnquist was Jewish...
Ironic that someone using the word ironic apparently does not know the meaning of ironic...
I don't think you realize why it is ironic, "Ha".
I'm at Sidley NY and Carter Phillips tells the snowstorm story every chance he gets as apparently he hitched a ride with Scalia et al. He says that one of the justices, can't remember which, said they had the power to run red lights because they were on their way to Court.
If Rehnquist is so smart how come he was almost always wrong?
Yea, right. The Clintons are such stupid people. Please.
i hear "counsels of Rome" had excellent QOL. no billables requirement either!
Rome to 190 aureus! (aureii?)
consul
Consul, not counsel. Jesus. Anyone who doesn't know that isn't exactly in a position to be criticizing someone else's learning.
Dear 6:00 PM:
As “masturbatory”, as my tales may be I prefer the descriptor “war story”. If you knew any trial lawyers you would be familiar with the term…..
8:33 -- um, rehnquist is a dunce precisely because he is quoted as saying "counsel," not consul. that, and because of his many pathetic opinions.
anyway, that was the joke. i don't know why i bother . . . thanks for bumming me out man
8:33--
It's a pun, stupid.
(7:50, that goes for you too!)
Wow, 6:00, you're such an asshole. Get back to autoadmit and don't tell other poster what they're allowed to talk about.
Isn't there something wrong with rehashing stuff about a SC Justice's (or anyone's) consumption of pornography?
Sure, 9:58, you keep on telling yourself that. It was totally witty!
Odds are actually best that Rehnquist got it right and whoever wrote the remark down had never heard of consuls. Then Toobin (and Lat) came along to reproduce the remark without realizing the problem.
Depressing all the way round.
6:59, in Phillips version of the story it was Scalia who authorized (or in his words, deputized) the US Marshall driving the car to run all the red lights. In this version of the story, Kennedy is in the backseat proclaiming that Scalia's authority doesn't extend to traffic lights on Virginia roads.
I'm deeply depressed that ABC News doesn't know the difference between "counsel" and a "Consul." How's this for a headline - "national news outlet hires culturally deprived, illiterate editors"?
Running red lights in a snowstorm where cars can't stop even if they see you in time is really stupid.
6:05 - I read in The Brethren that Rehnquist did some creepy anti-Semitic stuff in undergrad. He always struck me as a dick, aside from that. A brilliant dick (though I don't lean the way he does), but a dick, nonetheless.
Shouldn't it be "Consul," not "counsel"? I doubt that's something Rehnquist got wrong.
Very disappointing that the WP would kill the story on Thomas' porn habit. It might not normally be relevant that a Supreme Court Justice likes porn, but when the Senate had just spent months ripping Anita Hill apart for accusing him of sexual harassment, and parts of her accusations revolved around Thomas' talking about porn in the workplace, and he was confirmed because he vehemently denied that her accusations were true, it is damn well relevant.
There was an earlier investigation of Thomas' office at EEO or wherever he was. That found a lot of unacceptable and probably actionable sexual harassment by Thomas way back then. And that was at a time nobody was even thinking of him for the Supreme Court.
I think it's pretty clear Thomas has real issues.
call me long dong please.
Jenny and the others -- why was Bill Clinton's alleged sexual harassment a private matter and Clarence Thomas's alleged sexual harassment "damn well relevant"? I've never been able to understand this.