Closed Chambers: The Rise,Fall,And Future of the Modern Supreme Court - Softcover

Edward Lazarus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140283560 ISBN 13: 9780140283563

Publisher: Penguin, 1999

Synopsis

An inside look at the most secretive institution in the American government--the Supreme Court .

Operating inside a network of Byzantine secrecy, the United States Supreme Court is the most powerful judicial institution in the world. Nine unelected justices, supposedly insulated from the pressure of politics, are charged with protecting our most cherished rights and shaping our fundamental laws.

In this eloquent, trailblazing account, Edward Lazarus, who served as a clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun, provides an insider's guided tour of a court at war with itself and often in neglect of its constitutional duties. He guides the reader through the Court's inner sanctum, explaining as only an eyewitness can the collisions of law, politics, and personality as the Justices wrestle with the most fiercely disputed issues of our time. Part memoir, part history, and all spellbinding narrative, Closed Chambers provides an intimate portrait--Justice by Justice--of the battles and compromises of the highest court in the land.

--Updated with a new Afterword

"Impeccably researched and impressively documented." -- The Boston Globe

About this title

Review

Ambitious, opinionated, scholarly, gossipy ... wonderful. "Closed Chambers" is a crash course in contemporary constitutional and judicial culture. ("Newsday")

"Ambitious, opinionated, scholarly, gossipy wonderful. Closed Chambers is a crash course in contemporary constitutional law and judicial culture." Newsday

"Lazarus has opened a window on matters that are usually kept secret. [He] should be praised for shedding light where it is needed." The Washington Post

"Impeccably resarched and impressibly documented will fascinate diehard court-watchers." The Boston Globe

"The Court needs critics and members with Lazarus's intellectual clarity and deep attachment to its best traditions." Los Angeles Times

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"Ambitious, opinionated, scholarly, gossipy ... wonderful. Closed Chambers is a crash course in contemporary constitutional law and judicial culture." --Newsday

"Lazarus has opened a window on matters that are usually kept secret. ... [He] should be praised ... for shedding light where it is needed." --The Washington Post

"Impeccably resarched and impressibly documented ... will fascinate diehard court-watchers." --The Boston Globe

"The Court needs critics--and members--with Lazarus's intellectual clarity and deep attachment to its best traditions." --Los Angeles Times

From the Back Cover

"Operating within a Network of Byzantine Secrecy, The United States Supreme Court is the most powerful judicial institution in the world. Nine unelected justices are charged with protecting our most cherished rights and shaping our fundamental laws."--BOOK JACKET. "In this account, Edward Lazarus, who served as a clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun, provides an insider's guided tour of a court at war with itself and often in neglect of its constitutional duties. Combining memoir, history, and legal analysis, Lazarus weaves together past and present to reveal how law, politics, and personality collide in the Court's inner sanctum."--BOOK JACKET.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140283560
• ISBN 13: 9780140283563
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 592