The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court

This is the main theme of the book. Toobin gives an overview of how this happened, starting with the Reagan revolution begun with his election as president in 1980. Some people saw an overwhelming liberal slant to the Supreme Court under Chief Justices Earl Warren and Warren Burger, as well as to law schools throughout the country, and decided to try to establish a conservative legal movement. In 1982, some law students founded the Federalist Society to work for their cause. By 1991, eight of the nine justices had been appointed by Republican Presidents. However, they did not always vote the way strong conservatives wanted. Still, the 1990s saw a rightward shift at the Court overall, until the last year of the decade. From 1999 to 2005, there was a shift back to the left as international law began to have an impact on some of the justices and there was some pushback to the Bush administration’s encroachment on judicial power. After 2005, with the appointment of John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the Court, the conservatives were in firm control.