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New York Times Magazine and National Public Radio on the Supreme Court

By Jeff Justman

In two fascinating accounts, The New York Times Magazine and National Public Radio provide the latest media portrayals of life at the Supreme Court.

On NPR's program "Fresh Air," Terry Gross interviews legal scholar Jeffrey Toobin on his new book entitled "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court." Gross and Toobin have fairly revealing exchanges on recent and future developments at the Court, including a discussion of which justices might retire next. Gross's interview of Toobin is particularly enthralling due to Toobin's access to Supreme Court justices and clerks, which formed the basis for his book. Though Toobin cannot reveal the precise sources of his information, he often speaks as though he is on quite a familiar basis with Supreme Court Justices; at one point he even speculates on what former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor would change if she knew when she retired what she knows now about the direction of the Court.

In a biographical piece teeming with details, Jeffrey Rosen discusses an interview he held recently with 87-year-old Justice John Paul Stevens. Aside from recounting Stevens's views on the new Roberts court, Rosen's article provides a humanizing picture of one of the Court's longest-serving justices. Rosen, for example, tells of Stevens's encounter with aviator Amelia Earhart in the early 1930s (Earhart asked Stevens if he was staying out past his bedtime) and of Stevens's attendance at Babe Ruth's famous called shot game in the 1932 World Series (Stevens still displays the scorecard from the game in his chambers). Overall, the 8-page article is a well-researched and balanced view of a man Rosen labels "The Dissenter," for his increasingly large role in the Court's liberal minority.

Both Rosen's article and Gross's interview are detailed, well-crafted portrayals that anyone interested in the Supreme Court should either read or listen to.

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Full post as published by The Law and Politics Blog on September 23, 2007 (boomark / email).