Customer Reviews

Justices & Presidents: A Political History of Appointments to the Supreme Court

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Of the three branches of the federal government, I suspect I am not alone in knowing the least about the history of the Supreme Court, particularly before the hyperpartisan appointments of the 1980s began. Even after three years of law school, I know a lot of justices names but not too much about their history, how they were appointed, who they replaced, and what their jurisprudence was like.

Abraham's book gives a great, general history of the court and its appointees. It even touches on some of the major cases the justices wrestled with, jogging my memories of constitutional law. For non-law students, regular use of wikipedia will improve enjoyment of the book.

Abraham has several themes: the scholarly view of the appointing president, the criteria a president used in making appointments, and the performance of their selected justice. Of course, the quality of the appointing president and appointed justice are not thoroughly discussed in the later chapters where it was too early (at the time of publication) to fairly do so.

Abraham's story is essentially chronological. He goes through each president and discusses each of their appointments, then follows that appointee through their time on the court before jumping backwards to the next appointee. The book does a thorough job with even somewhat obscure justices I had never heard of and probably never will again. Some may quibble with Abraham's characterization of justices and presidents based on scholarly rankings, but it makes for an effective, short hand method to cover a lot of ground quickly.

I did learn as I was finishing up the book that later editions have been released. I would encourage anyone interested to pick up the latest edition, as the third edition essentially ends with the selection of Clarence Thomas (though before his confirmation).

If you enjoyed books like The Nine but want a broader view of the court's history, I strongly suggest one of Abraham's books.