The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court

In what is putatively a democracy, with power given by the people, and then shared among three coequal branches of government the United States Supreme Court stands apart It is distinctly undemocratic unelected, unaccountable, and secretive The Supreme Court is where the power is, because it doesn t matter who makes the laws, or enforces the laws it only matters who interprets the laws The Supreme Court has always been a political branch, though it s only fairly recently that we ve come to accep [...]

OK, I haven t read All the Presidents Men, but of all the Woodward books I ve read, this is by far the best Woodward can get just about anyone to talk to him, and that is never clear than in this book He s got direct quotes from meetings where there were only five people in attendance Its amazing.Some brief thoughts on some of the justices features in this book Brennan rules.Burger was a toolMarshall was a much better lawyer than he was a justice.Rehnquist dick.Douglas dick, but pretty fucking [...]

I read this book in high school, as a high school senior for a Constitutional Law class I loved it, I loved every minute of it I found the book very compelling then, and I am sure that I would now I read the book for a class, but I really got into it, without even knowing the cases that the court heard, who was on the court and the politics behind all of it Personally, I think that this book really gave me an inside look into the legal system, and is possibly the reason why I became a lawyer I w [...]

Whether they realize it or not, the decisions of the U.S Supreme Court have enormous ongoing impact on the lives and prospects of every American Most Americans who actually follow politics and public affairs have very strong opinions about the court about what its proper role should be, about what philosophy of jurisprudence should guide its decisions, and about how well the current and past courts have measured up or failed to by those standards I m certainly no exception my own perspective is [...]

This is a story of what came after the Warren Court the Burger Court.The appellation of the Warren Court was not merely a product of journalistic shorthand The Chief Justice exerts enormous power over Court decisions If he is in the majority of the initial vote, he assigns opinions The resulting assignment affects the nuance of legal reasoning which can strengthen or dilute the effects of a decision The authors note that Warren s successor, Warren Burger, was careful to vote with the majority so [...]

This book was written before Ronald Reagan appointed, in 1981, the first woman to the Supreme Court, so at the time, the brethren was an appropriate way to refer to the justices on the Supreme Court I think it s still the way to which the justices are referred in general, even though than one woman has now served on the high court This book is an interesting look at the way the Supreme Court functioned a few decades ago, but perhaps the time has come for Bob Woodward to revisit this topic.

A classic Through and through Sparked an interest that turned into a passion, and is still burning years after I first read it in high school Every time I read this book I gain new insights If only we could see behind today s Supreme Court After The Brethren came out though, I doubt any justices will be talking to reporters any.

I absolutely loved this book I had to complete a research paper in high school on the legalization of abortion The Roe vs Wade trial This book was one of the ones that helped immensely It was a great, interesting read through out the court cases and Justices through the years and terms of each one

Hooray I finished a book that is not about babies and their sleep habits and developmental milestones I read 10 pages a night over a few months and this was a good book for that slow pace I enjoyed it The authors seemed to have an impressive amount of access I found the behind the scenes politicking and negotiating fascinating, but also disheartening.

I have a hard time believing that Chief Justice Burger was really as intellectually challenged as he is portrayed here I also have respect for Thurgood Marshall than to believe that he just loafed along his days on the Court Still, this book was a fascinating look at the Supreme Court both as a bit of history and as a good look at how the Court is still run Woodward organizes this book chronologically It basically begins when Chief Justice Burger takes over from Chief Justice Earl Warren Then i [...]

A shocking, detailed behind the scenes account of the Burger court thru 1975.Warren Burger was an inept, stupid, highly political hack of a Chief Justice And a racist, sexist, bigot.Thurgood Marshall was lazy and delegated his work to the point of dereliction.William Brennan was awesome.Ditto William Douglas, until he became senile and crazy.Rehnquist was a really nice guy who lied a lot to get the results he wanted It is chilling that in this book he is the far right, while at the time of his d [...]

This was a fascinating look inside the Supreme Court and it reads practically like a novel It was scary learning what motivates a lot of the decision making on the court at the end of the day these are just nine normal people deciding such important issues that affect so many I would have liked to learn about Blackmun and I felt that Woodward s portrayal of him was very different than his portrayal in Becoming Justice Blackmun You might like this book if you are a liberal, because Brennan come [...]

When this book came out, my first response was Wow How did Woodward get all of these inside stories But that s my normal response to many of his books Why do people open up so much to him I once used this as a textbook in a course on Law and Politics, since it gives an inside view of the Supreme Court Questions have been raised about this work, but in thne end a good read and a work that gets one to thinking about the Court.

I found Woodward s prose to make this a compelling and accessible volume on the Court My intellectual curiousity was piqued by some of the cases discussed.

One of the most insightful books about the inner workings of The Supreme Court every done.

I have again gone back in time to a book that has ties to the Nixon years, co written by a pair of Washington Post reporters with ties to Nixon s fall The Brethren written by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong looks at the U.S Supreme Court during a time where justice selection seemed to be as political as the rest of the Government From 1969 the year Nixon selected Warren Burger as Chief Justice through 1975, Woodward and Armstrong wrote about the life and times of the Court, provided tremendous [...]

I had really looked forward to this book based on the reviews it has received It was very disappointing for me, someone with no formal background knowledge of Law and the Constitution The author makes assumptions that the reader will know what a cert is, what defines a conference , what the role of the Law Clerk is, and how cases ultimately end up at the Court It would have taken very little effort for Woodward to have defined things clearly for the general audience if his intention was to educ [...]

I generally do not like to spend my free time reading books about the law I picked this book up at my Dad s house during a recent trip Due to the length of the book and its subject, I thought the odds were long that I would get very far before putting it down and picking up some fiction I enjoyed this book than anything I ve read in a longtime Now than 30 years old, what was originally current affairs when it was published can be viewed looking back with some historical perspective The last ju [...]

I found this book to be deeply entertaining and revealing The interviews given in this book were inspired by the justices and clerks outrage at the Chief Justice s running of the Court Justice Stewart, who was particularly disgusted, provided Woodward with extended, in depth interviews I especially love the picture on the cover a towering picture of the Supreme Court, looking almost holy Then, while reading the book you realize that these justices aren t legal scholars set away from society, shu [...]

Depth BStyle CContent BResearch AHistorical Impact DWoodward and Armstrong write a tale of 7 years and 14 Supreme Court judges To actually write the book, and to access dozens of law clerks and judges, and to amass huge documentation is in itself the feat of the book The Supreme Court has been the most sheltered of all public institutions with only trifles of coverage before The book does portray the quirks of the judges, the key decisions of each year, the infighting and the peculiarities of an [...]

slow, but very intriguing read

This was one of the few difficult books that I forced myself to read but I was curious about the supreme justices and our judicial system so I read it I don t remember much of it except how the clerks would write most of the legal documents for the justices The justices read briefs, made decisions, and hands off the rest of the work to their very faithful clerks These poor clerks would toil long hours to appease their bosses HmmI don t remember what year I read this book but it was before I stra [...]

Amazing I had no idea Warren Burger was such an insufferable dick I mean I heard bad things but I had NO IDEA Apparently the whole reason this book got writ was because so many of the other justices were peeved at Burger and they had to vent in long, extended interviews.The book focuses too much on Watergate perhaps justifiably for Woodward and the extremely detailed background on some cases the multiple memos, amendments,drafts, and meetings behind them , but one leaves the book with a real und [...]

This book signifies everything I hate about Bob Woodward He writes as if he was sitting in the chambers while the judges discuss these cases, quoting verbatim However, NO ONE is allowed inside the chambers, so why not just say that and call it a fictionalized account of the real supreme court or something Because then he would lose his cache as a journalist But a true journalist doesn t withhold stories from the newspaper he s managing editor of so that he could write a best seller.That being sa [...]

This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the dynamics of the Burger court Woodward obviously relied on numerous clerks and perhaps some justices to get the inside scoop on the interpersonal dynamics of the nation s highest judges at a critical time in jurisprudential history The Chief himself is portrayed as vain, pretentious, and ungifted, while William Brennan is shown as the somewhat cynical swing player The degredation of the relationship between the Minnesota Twins Blackmun an [...]

The best of Woodward s many books The Brethren was the first the now many Inside the Supreme Court books.The cliff notes version Chief Justice Burger is a hack Justice Brennan is a great hero for all mankind Justice Marshall is lazy and lets his clerks do all of his work And Justice Stewart is the everyman justice with a 125 IQ, natch with his finger on the pulse of the American zeitgeist The rest of the justices barely figure.Much of this is probably true who knows , but Woodward here follows h [...]

An interesting, gossipy account of the goings on at the Supreme Court during one of the most critical phases in its history The book has aged pretty well, and it still leaves readers with absolute contempt for Warren Burger Potter Stewart, who apparently collaborated with the authors, doesn t come off looking much better William Rehnquist, pre stroke William O Douglas, J P Stevens, Lewis Powell, and the vastly underrated Byron Whizzer White are all portrayed as competent jurists, with William Br [...]

This was a WOW book for me.Woodward and Armstrong take their readers inside the halls of power and give us access to history being created as if we are there with them in real time The thoroughness of the research and the intensity of the Justices personality make for educational and entertaining reading This is definitely only a book for the politically engaged read incredibly nerdy reader, but it s a remarkable piece of writing and reporting.

Study of how our Supreme Court works Hard to believe that it is really as depicted, with the Justice s clerks in control and Chief Justice Burger a total idiot But maybe Much of the book chronicles events in the Nixon era, and if you are in your 50 s this book explains alot of what went on and why Very good.

I felt like I was trying to sit through fifteen hours of Good Morning America The Supreme Court as a Roy Rogers movie petty men in black hats and heroic selfless ones in white hats Lots of factual statments about the unknowable emotions and mental processes of the Justices I guess being a Washington Post reporter qualifies you to write nonfiction as an omniscient narrator.