Favorite reads on the Supreme Court
Call me crazy, but I have a hunch that the U.S. Supreme Court is going to be in the news for the next several weeks, as the Senate takes up Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to fill the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the high court.
There’s no shortage of Supreme Court books for those who want to know more about the judicial branch. Many of our living justices have written books, and there’s no shortage of coverage of past justices. One of my favorites is “First: Sandra Day O’Connor,” by Evan Thomas, which goes well beyond a paint-by-number approach to offer a portrait of an important life.
If you want the inside scoop of how the court works, I recommend “The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court” by Bob Woodward and “The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court” by Jeffrey Toobin. Toobin is the superior narrative storyteller, but Woodward always seems to be able to get his hands on tidbits beyond the reach of others.
Rather than dwell in the land of reality, for lots of reasons, I’d like to suggest a vacation in the land of fiction. It’s a lot more fun.
John Grisham did not invent the legal thriller — probably some Greek dude did — but he has become his own genre. “The
Pelican Brief ” is one of his most satisfying efforts. It opens with the brutal assassinations of two Supreme Court justices (one inside a den of pornography); a young law student (played by Julia Roberts in the movie) quickly and unwittingly gets tangled up in the murders. The plot machinations arrive like clockwork in the way only the most satisfying thrillers achieve, as points once murky become clear to both the protagonist and the reader. If you need a distraction, it’ll do nicely.
Christopher Buckley is to contemporary political farce what John Grisham is to the legal thriller, and “Supreme Courtship” is one of his more prescient sendups of Washington political culture. President Donald Vanderdamp wants out of his job because he’s not having any fun and his Supreme Court nominees keep getting rejected.
Calling the Senate’s bluff, he nominates the country’s No. 1 reality show judge: Pepper Cartwright, a kind of Judge Judy, only younger and considerably more Texan.
Complications ensue with a plot every bit as elaborate as a Grisham thriller, played for laughs. “Supreme Courtship” was published just prior to the election of President Barack Obama, so if reality has overtaken satire, Buckley should be both forgiven and praised for his prescience.
For an only somewhat more grounded work of humor, I recommend Jay Wexler’s “Tuttle in the Balance.” Wexler is a law professor and former clerk for the late Justice Ginsburg. He brings a sensitive eye to the foibles of Supreme Court Justice Ed Tuttle, who is simultaneously experiencing a midlife crisis, and acting as the critical swing vote on a divided court.
A series of mostly self-inflicted disasters befall Tuttle as Wexler’s gentle but pointed humor wins us over to the confused justice’s side.
Tuttle reminds us that Supreme Court justices are people, too, not just political vessels.
I do not know what the future holds for the court and our country. It’s possible that things are going to get weirder than we can imagine. Brett Kavanaugh’s paeans to the pleasures of beer during his hearings already sound like something out of Wexler or Buckley’s satires: “Yes, we drank beer. My friends and I. Boys and girls. Yes, we drank beer. I liked beer. Still like beer. We drank beer.” And that guy is now a justice for life.
All of these books end satisfactorily, even happily. Let’s hope the real world follows.
It’s been awhile since I recommended Min Jin Lee’s sprawling and epic so I’m going to do that right here.
Delia Owens
Jiles
Wingate
Whitehead
When I see a bunch of books that are from the proverbial “recent fiction” table, I like to reach for something a little less recent. In this case, it’s
by
Eudora Welty.
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