3. Bibliography

3.8. The Brethren, Inside the Supreme Court

Author:  Bob Woodward, Scott Armstrong

Publisher: Avon

Copyright Dates: 1981

ISBN: 0-380-52183-0                         Library of Congress:  79-19955

Number of Pages:  528 plus: Index, 24 photographs, 1 print

The Book

This book is a balanced account of the inner workings of the Supreme Court from 1969 to 1976, the first seven years of Warren Burger's tenure as Chief Justice.  It describes the decision making steps that went into many famous cases and cases which affect the way laws are interpreted today, as well as the decision making processing during the selection of Supreme Court nominees.  It also provides insights into the character and decision making processes of the justices themselves, including

Hugo Black a liberal from Alabama, who had been appointed by FDR.  He provided the basis for many Earl Warren court landmark decisions.

Harry Blackmun, who grew up in the same neighborhood as Chief Justice Burger and was best man at his wedding.  He was appointed by Nixon and became the primary author of the Roe v. Wade decision

William J. Brennan, an Eisenhower appointee who turned out more liberal than expected. He had rarely dissented from Earl Warren court opinions.

Warren E. Burger, Nixon's selection for Chief Justice, who was determined to create a "law and order" court. He tried to keep liberal justices from writing majority opinions in important criminal law, racial discrimination and free speech cases.

William O. Douglas, an FDR appointee, who was a controversial and dogmatic liberal. He was for the individual over government, government over big business and the environment over all else.

John Marshall Harlan, the "unflappable" Eisenhower conservative, who was the court's scholar.  To avoid appearances of endorsing any executive branch action, he never voted and never applauded at the president's state of the union address.

Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve on the court. Appointed by Lyndon Johnson, he served as a conscience for the court while avoiding the intricacies of legal scholarship.

Lewis Powell, a political moderate, who was thoughtful and not doctrinaire. Appointed by Nixon, he arrived on the court in 1971, in the middle of the deliberations over state death penalty laws.

William Rehnquist, the brilliant and controversial Nixon appointee.  He provided a solid conservative vote, siding with the prosecution in criminal cases, with business in antitrust cases, with employers in labor cases and with government in speech cases.

John Paul Stevens who was Ford's appointee to replaced Douglas.  Noted for his thoroughness and sophisticated arguments, Stevens quickly became a respected and influential member of the court.

Potter Stewart, an Eisenhower appointee and a "Rockefeller Republican." He believed that "hard core" pornography could be banned, but unable to define "hard core" precisely, he once wrote "but I know it when I see it."

Byron White, the only Kennedy appointee, who was a former professional football player and Rhodes scholar.  Always competitive, he sometimes interrupted his clerks for a game of basketball in the Court's fourth floor gymnasium, which they called "the highest court in the land."

• The failed nominations of Clement F. Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell
• The attempt to impeach William O. Douglas
• Battles over school desegregation cases and forced busing
• Attempts to challenge the Viet Nam War in court
• The Muhammad Ali conscientious objector case
• The publication of the Pentagon Papers
• Roe v. Wade and abortion rights
• Watergate court battles
• Pornography rulings
• The overturning of state death penalty laws and evaluation of new laws when they were passed
• The Campaign Finance Reform law and the effects the Supreme Court ruling had on the 1976 presidential campaign

Anecdotes

A favorite story of Thurgood Marshall:  Marshall was the sole occupant of the private justice's elevator, when some unsuspecting tourists wandered into it.  Finding a lone black man there they said, "First floor please." "Yowsa, Yowsa," responded Marshall as he pretended to operate the self service elevator. After holding the door for the tourists as they exited, he also left the elevator, noting their puzzlement and then confusion as he walked off and they realized who he was.

Justice William O. Douglas suffered a stroke while on vacation in Nassau at the end of  1974.  When informed of the situation, President Ford immediately sent Douglas' personal physician by jet to Nassau.  The doctor decided that Douglas should be returned to the states immediately.  When his wife informed him that President Ford, his former nemesis who had called for his impeachment, had sent a plane for his trip home, Douglas said, "you know they'll drop us in Havana."

John Paul Stevens was a modest man of subtle humor.  Once while trying a case in private practice, an opposing attorney, noting that Stevens always wore bow ties, implied that lawyers who wore clip on bow ties could not be trusted.  Stevens stood up, untied his regular bow tie, retied it and sat down, all without saying a word.