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Based on exclusive interviews with justices themselves, The Nine tells the story of the Supreme Court through personalities, from Anthony Kennedy's overwhelming sense of self-importance to Clarence Thomas' well-tended grievances against his critics to David Souter's odd 19th-century lifestyle. There is also, for the first time, the full behind-the-scenes story of Bush v. Gore and Sandra Day O'Connor's fateful breach with George W. Bush, the president she helped place in office.
Over the course of his life, James Madison changed the United States three times: First, he designed the Constitution, led the struggle for its adoption and ratification, then drafted the Bill of Rights. As an older, cannier politician, he cofounded the original Republican party, setting the course of American political partisanship. Finally, having pioneered a foreign policy based on economic sanctions, he took the United States into a high-risk conflict, becoming the first wartime president and, despite the odds, winning.
Melvin Urofsky's major new audiobook looks at the role of dissent in the Supreme Court and the meaning of the Constitution through the greatest and longest lasting public-policy debate in the country's history, among members of the Supreme Court, between the Court and the other branches of government, and between the Court and the people of the United States.
No member of America's founding generation had a greater impact on the Constitution and the Supreme Court than John Marshall, and no one did more to preserve the delicate unity of the fledgling United States. From the nation's founding in 1776 and for the next 40 years, Marshall was at the center of every political battle. As Chief Justice of the United States - the longest-serving in history - he established the independence of the judiciary and the supremacy of the federal Constitution and courts.
The first full-scale biography in 25 years of one of the most important and distinguished justices to sit on the Supreme Court - an audiobook that reveals Louis D. Brandeis the reformer, lawyer, and jurist, and Brandeis the man, in all of his complexity, passion, and wit. As a lawyer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he pioneered how modern law is practiced.
In this groundbreaking portrait of corporate seizure of political power, We the Corporations reveals how American businesses won equal rights and transformed the Constitution to serve the ends of capital. Corporations - like minorities and women - have had a civil rights movement of their own and now possess nearly all the same rights as ordinary people. Uncovering the deep historical roots of Citizens United, Adam Winkler shows how that controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision was the capstone of a 200-year battle....
Based on exclusive interviews with justices themselves, The Nine tells the story of the Supreme Court through personalities, from Anthony Kennedy's overwhelming sense of self-importance to Clarence Thomas' well-tended grievances against his critics to David Souter's odd 19th-century lifestyle. There is also, for the first time, the full behind-the-scenes story of Bush v. Gore and Sandra Day O'Connor's fateful breach with George W. Bush, the president she helped place in office.
Over the course of his life, James Madison changed the United States three times: First, he designed the Constitution, led the struggle for its adoption and ratification, then drafted the Bill of Rights. As an older, cannier politician, he cofounded the original Republican party, setting the course of American political partisanship. Finally, having pioneered a foreign policy based on economic sanctions, he took the United States into a high-risk conflict, becoming the first wartime president and, despite the odds, winning.
Melvin Urofsky's major new audiobook looks at the role of dissent in the Supreme Court and the meaning of the Constitution through the greatest and longest lasting public-policy debate in the country's history, among members of the Supreme Court, between the Court and the other branches of government, and between the Court and the people of the United States.
No member of America's founding generation had a greater impact on the Constitution and the Supreme Court than John Marshall, and no one did more to preserve the delicate unity of the fledgling United States. From the nation's founding in 1776 and for the next 40 years, Marshall was at the center of every political battle. As Chief Justice of the United States - the longest-serving in history - he established the independence of the judiciary and the supremacy of the federal Constitution and courts.
The first full-scale biography in 25 years of one of the most important and distinguished justices to sit on the Supreme Court - an audiobook that reveals Louis D. Brandeis the reformer, lawyer, and jurist, and Brandeis the man, in all of his complexity, passion, and wit. As a lawyer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he pioneered how modern law is practiced.
In this groundbreaking portrait of corporate seizure of political power, We the Corporations reveals how American businesses won equal rights and transformed the Constitution to serve the ends of capital. Corporations - like minorities and women - have had a civil rights movement of their own and now possess nearly all the same rights as ordinary people. Uncovering the deep historical roots of Citizens United, Adam Winkler shows how that controversial 2010 Supreme Court decision was the capstone of a 200-year battle....
From the moment John Roberts, the chief justice of the United States, blundered through the Oath of Office at Barack Obama's inauguration, the relationship between the Supreme Court and the White House has been confrontational. Both men are young, brilliant, charismatic, charming, determined to change the course of the nation - and completely at odds on almost every major constitutional issue. One is radical; one essentially conservative. The surprise is that Obama is the conservative.
Between 1861 and 1865, the clash of the greatest armies the Western hemisphere had ever seen turned small towns, little-known streams, and obscure meadows in the American countryside into names we will always remember. In those great battles, those streams ran red with blood-and the United States was truly born.
A leading Supreme Court expert recounts the personal and philosophical rivalries that forged our nation's highest court and continue to shape our daily lives. The Supreme Court is the most mysterious branch of government, and yet the Court is at root a human institution, made up of very bright people with very strong egos, for whom political and judicial conflicts often become personal.
Free speech as we know it comes less from the First Amendment than from a most unexpected source: Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. A lifelong skeptic, he disdained all individual rights, including the right to express one's political views. But in 1919, it was Holmes who wrote a dissenting opinion that would become the canonical affirmation of free speech in the United States.
No understanding of the past is complete without an understanding of the legal battles and struggles that have done so much to shape it. Inside a survey of world history's greatest trials are the key insights to critical issues we still talk about today, including freedom of speech, the death penalty, religious freedom, and the meaning of equality. Join Professor Linder for these 24 lectures that investigate important legal cases from around the world and across the centuries.
The Final Days is the number-one New York Times best-selling, classic, behind-the-scenes account of Richard Nixon's dramatic last months as president. Moment by moment, Bernstein and Woodward portray the taut, post-Watergate White House as Nixon, his family, his staff, and many members of Congress strained desperately to prevent his inevitable resignation. This brilliant book reveals the ordeal of Nixon's fall from office - one of the gravest crises in presidential history.
Chief Justice Rehnquist's engaging writing illuminates both the high and low points in the Court's history, from Chief Justice Marshall's dominance of the Court during the early 19th century through the landmark decisions of the Warren Court. Citing cases such as the Dred Scott decision and Roosevelt's Court-packing plan, Rehnquist makes clear that the Court does not operate in a vacuum, that the justices are unavoidably influenced by their surroundings, and that their decisions have real and lasting impacts on our society.
Thurgood Marshall brought down the separate-but-equal doctrine, integrated schools, and not only fought for human rights and human dignity but also made them impossible to deny in the courts and in the streets. In this new biography, award-winning author Wil Haygood surpasses the emotional impact of his inspiring best seller The Butler to detail the life and career of one of the most transformative legal minds of the past 100 years.
One of today's premier biographers has written a modern, comprehensive, indeed ultimate book on the epic life of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This is a portrait painted in broad strokes and fine details. We see how Roosevelt's restless energy, fierce intellect, personal magnetism, and ability to project effortless grace permitted him to master countless challenges throughout his life.
Richard Nixon opens with young navy lieutenant "Nick" Nixon returning from the Pacific and setting his cap at Congress, an idealistic dreamer seeking to build a better world. Yet amid the turns of that now legendary 1946 campaign, Nixon's finer attributes quickly gave way to unapologetic ruthlessness. It is a stunning overture to John A. Farrell's magisterial portrait of a man who embodied postwar American cynicism.
On a hot summer afternoon in 1928, the leaders of the world assembled in Paris to outlaw war. Within the year, the treaty signed that day, known as the Peace Pact, had been ratified by nearly every state in the world. War, for the first time in history, had become illegal the world over. But the promise of that summer day was fleeting. Within a decade of its signing, each state that had gathered in Paris to renounce war was at war. And in the century that followed, the Peace Pact was dismissed as an act of folly and an unmistakable failure.
Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these stereotypes don't come close to capturing him, as Chernow sows in his masterful biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency.
A tiny, ebullient Jew who started as America's leading liberal and ended as its most famous judicial conservative. A Klansman who became an absolutist advocate of free speech and civil rights. A backcountry lawyer who started off trying cases about cows and went on to conduct the most important international trial ever. A self-invented, tall-tale Westerner who narrowly missed the presidency but expanded individual freedom beyond what anyone before had dreamed.
Four more different men could hardly be imagined. Yet they had certain things in common. Each was a self-made man who came from humble beginnings on the edge of poverty. Each had driving ambition and a will to succeed. Each was, in his own way, a genius. They began as close allies and friends of FDR, but the quest to shape a new Constitution led them to competition and sometimes outright warfare.
Scorpions tells the story of these four great justices: their relationship with Roosevelt, with each other, and with the turbulent world of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. It also serves as a history of the modern Constitution itself.
This was a fantastic book. Not just for fans or those interested in the Supreme Court, but to anyone who is interested in the legal history of the United States and the Supreme Court. It is amazing how the Supreme Court works and makes critical decisions that effect the lives of the entire country. The Justices cooperate, bicker, side with others, side against each other, and at times it almost comes down to using their fists, but they struggle with the unknown consequences of their decision. A great book about how F.D.R. chose his picks for the court and the impacts they left.
9 of 9 people found this review helpful
‘The Supreme Court is 9 scorpions in a bottle’—Alexander Bickel, law clerk to Justice Frankfurter 1952-53.
Of these 9 Justices (all FDR appointees) Hugo Black, Felix Frankfurter, William Douglas and Robert Jackson would become great Justices. This audio book is dedicated to them. They were allies and close associates of FDR, contributed in essential ways to FDR’s New Deal, were all influenced by Justice Louis Brandeis, had taken on Wall Street and considered themselves liberals. Eventually their visions would diverge, their personalities would clash and they would become enemies. Each with his own theory about how to understand the constitution, they nevertheless reinvented this document, albeit along 4 diverging paths.
Black hailed from the Deep South and obtained his seat as Senator by wooing the KKK, even becoming a member—an association which dogged his Supreme Court appointment. He had a stint on the Bench as Magistrate in a Birmingham Police Court handling misdemeanours. For all his past KKK associations, he became a Supreme Court Justice who espoused noble human causes, most notably in the field of free speech. He maintained an absolutist view in this regard, i.e., Congress shall make NO law abridging free speech; the Constitution says NO law, and this means NO law.
Frankfurter, an Austrian born Jew arrived in the US aged 12 without a stitch of English. A Harvard law Professor, he had been, before his appointment to the Supreme Court the country’s foremost liberal, but he would become the leading Conservative on the Bench.
Douglas left his post as Yale law Professor to join the SEC, and became an adviser and friend of FDR. Douglas had Presidential aspirations and narrowly missed the Presidency. He became the most unabashedly liberal, results driven Justice ever to have sat on the Supreme Court.
Jackson, a back country lawyer, started off trying cases about cows. He was appointed Solicitor-General, and thereafter Attorney-General by FDR and played a seminal role advising the President on the legality of aiding the UK during WWII at a juncture when such assistance might have jeopardised America’s neutrality—Congress also having barred such assistance He would take an unprecedented leave of absence as Supreme Court Justice to conduct the most important International Criminal trial ever as Chief Prosecutor at Nuremburg.
Between 1937 and 1939 FDR appointed Black, Frankfurter and Douglas. In 1940 the Court had to decide on the legality of the expulsion from school of 2 Jehovah’s Witness siblings for refusing to salute the flag on religious grounds. In an opinion written by Frankfurter (Black and Douglas concurring), the Court upheld the school’s decision.
Jackson was appointed in 1941. The 4 Justices sat together for the 1st in the case of 8 German saboteurs. The Court, in a single unanimous order, had rejected their objection to a trial before a Military Commission. Their opinion would be delivered after the execution of 6 saboteurs. The Military Commission had not followed the Congressional Articles of War Rules, also FDR ordered that no court would have the authority to review the verdict. The Justices were hard-pressed to give a unanimous opinion as they had acted highly unusually by summarily approving the Military Commission. The Court might be embarrassed if it turned out that there were good reasons to doubt the constitutionality of the trial—6 defendants having already been executed already. Black felt that FDR had overstepped the bounds. Jackson disagreed, maintaining that the Court had no business reviewing FDR's decision. Frankfurter intervened proposing his judicial restraint punch-line: it is a wise requirement of Courts not to get into needless rows with other branches of Government by talking about things that need not be talked about if the a case can be disposed of with intellectual self-respect on grounds that do not raise such rows. Following Frankfurter’s circulation, the Justices decided not to make the disagreements public, the Court thereby showing war-time loyalty to FDR.
In 1943 the Government tried to strip the secretary of the Communist Party, California of citizenship. Frankfurter who was, like the defendant, a naturalised Jew, and whose Americanism had replaced his Judaism, and who lived the creed of a convert who is more zealous than one born to the faith, would have no truck with the Communist’s purported unpatriotic activities. The majority of the Court disagreed and Frankfurter was left to join in the dissenting opinion by Stone CJ.
In a case concerning the Jehovah’s Witness right to be exempt from a tax on the distribution on pamphlets, Black, Douglas and Murphy filed an unusual dissent, openly regretting their earlier votes in the 1940 flag salute-case. A year later the Court overturned Frankfurter’s judgment. In an opinion written by Jackson (not on the Court when the 1st case had been decided) the court held that the children should be protected against having to declare a believe which they did not hold. Frankfurter took the reversal of his opinion as a personal and professional calamity, especially because Jackson used the flag salute as a metaphor for Nazi’s oppression of Jews. Frankfurter responded with the most agonised and agonising opinion recorded anywhere in the US reports, defending his jurisprudence, liberalism and Jewishness. Several Justices unsuccessfully begged him not to publish the opening lines of his opinion expressing these sentiments which they thought too personal.
In the 1950 German radio operators case the Court had to deliberate an issue that would resonate 60 years later in the Guantanamo detentions: ‘Did the power of the US Courts extend overseas to protect persons who are not US citizens, yet have been tried under the auspices of the US Government?’ Jackson replied in the negative. Black and Douglas dissented, in favour of the principle of equal justice not for citizens alone, but for all persons coming within the ambit of US power.
In Dennis v US the defendants (Communists) were charged with violating the Smith Act. The question which the Court had to decide was whether the First Amendment permitted Congress to pass a law that in essence made it a crime to belong to the USACP. Frankfurter (applying his judicial restraint doctrine) and Jackson joined the majority in upholding the convictions. Black and Douglas dissented—Black of course expounding his absolutist free speech doctrine, which was his hallmark.
In Brown v Board of Education (1954) the Court revisited Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) in which the constitutionality of State laws applying racial segregation had been upheld on the ground of the ‘separate but equal’ doctrine. The scorpions would sit together as a quartet for the last time. It was also the 1st time these fiercely independent Justices agreed in a case of such great moment. They joined in the unanimous opinion delivered by Earl Warren CJ, striking down school segregation. FDR’s team had the opportunity to show their mettle as custodians of liberalism, and they rose in unison to the occasion in the most liberal of swansongs.
Related Audible.com books—‘The Majesty of the Law: Reflections of a Supreme Court Justice’ by Sandra Day O’ Connor, ‘The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams, Marshall and the Battle for the Supreme Court’ by Cliff Sloan & David Mckean and ‘Freedom for the Thought that We Hate: A Biography of the First Amendment’ by Anthony Lewis. Related material available through Amazon.com—‘The Supreme Court’ (4 DVD box set) narrated by David Strathairn.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful
I won't attempt to review the substance of this absolutely outstanding book--for that you can find many worthy examplars at amazon.com. What I will say is that, contrary to what is stated by audible, the book is not narrated by the author (whom I have heard speak) but by someone sounding entirely different. That person, it must be said, does a fabulous job. He has a deep, authoritative, and very pleasing voice. That and the cadence and diction are just right, notwithstanding the very occasional and probably inevitable mispronounciations (as, for example, calling the Massachusetts town "STOUT-AN" and not "STOW-TON.") I simply can't recommend this audible book too highly!
10 of 11 people found this review helpful
While I enjoyed the "first part" of the book which familiarizes the reader with the main characters and their backgrounds, I found the "second part" the real joy. Well known cases with enough detail to make you comfortable with the issues and an unbiased approach to each character's role in the case. A really good listen for those interested in the Superme Court itself and, as an extra bonus, some familiar names come into play to give you an all around feel for the era and what is to come.
Sandra (Houston, Texas) 4/19/2011
4 of 4 people found this review helpful
Noah Feldman is an incredible scholar. This book is a wonderful story about 4 great minds--and 4 great egos--colliding with each other. It's hard to underestimate the impact that these men have had on 20th Century history and Feldman does a great job telling their stories.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
This is a very well written and well narrated book. As has been pointed out by previous reviewers the book is narrated by Cotter Smith and not Professor Feldman. The book focuses on the lives of four of FDR's Supreme Court Justices- Jackson, Douglas, Frankfurter and Black- all of whom had a very significant impact on the history of the Supreme Court from the New Deal era to the current day. Professor Feldman does an excellent job discussing the backgrounds of the four justices and how their education, social and political experiences framed their view of jurisprudence. For readers who are very interested in the Supreme Court and how it has become so important in the modern day political era this is a great listen. I would also recommend that after listening to this volume, readers may also want to listen to Jeff Shesol's well written and narrated book "Supreme Power" which focuses on FDR's attempt to pack the Supreme Court. While the court packing scheme is discussed in Professor Feldman's book, it is justifiably given less space than in Mr. Shesol's book. I would strongly recommend both books. Great additions to the Audible Library
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
I admit to being a bit of a Con Law obsessive. So, this is right down my ally, but I think it has a much broader appeal!
2 of 2 people found this review helpful
This is not only the story of four Supreme Court Justices but (albeit partial) history of the New Deal era and the legal struggles to establish New Deal programs. The lives and character (and contradictions) of the four Justices (Frankfuter, Black, Jackson and Douglas) are developed as well of those of contemporary jurists and historical figures. In addition to being a professor at a prestigious law school, Mr. Feldman is a good storyteller. The performance is excellent. Highly recommended to anyone interested in history. While initially united by their New Deal liberalism, the justices eventually went their separate way in their views of the Constitution and its interpretation. Author Feldman makes a persuasive argument of the importance of these Justices in the development of constitutional thought.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
What made the experience of listening to Scorpions the most enjoyable?
Learning so much about the individuals who impacted our society
What was one of the most memorable moments of Scorpions?
The push for additional justices that lead to a reversal by the Court.
What does Noah Feldman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
His interest and respect for Justice Frankfurter.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Justice Jackson's effort to become Chief Justice.
Any additional comments?
Highly informative regarding the period in time that changed our country.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful
This book was excellent. It follows the professional careers of Four of history's greatest justices (Black, Douglas, Jackson, and Frankfurter). All four were expected to be champions of the liberal cause, but struggled to find their place for various reasons. By the end of their lives, however, they had completely changed the face of Constitutional law as we know it.
The book weaves through the early careers of each man, their appointment to the bench, and their subsequent time on the court. It is an excellent mix of story telling and legal explanation. I was especially impressed by how the author describes the relationships between the four justices, including how their relationships began to fray in the latter years of their tenure.
The book is a non[artisan historical account. The author's own commentary does seep into the book in a few places, but it is barely noticable. Anyone who is interested in the Supreme Court will find this book fascinating. Conservative readers may even be interested in learning that it was liberal justices who created their favorite methods of Constitutional interpretation: Judicial Restraint (Frankfurter) and Originalism (Black).
Overall: a great historical account of the Supreme Court that FDR created.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful