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The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin

Jeffrey Toobin's The Nine is an in-depth look at the personalities and machinations within the Supreme Court. Based on interviews with the justices themselves, as well as many of their law clerks, Toobin's examination focuses mainly on the Rehnquist court. He documents not just how they each approach their role on the court, but how they see their roles on the national stage and within history. The Rehnquist court straddled a moderate course, with Sandra Day O'Connor struggling to keep it centrist and align it with public opinion, but by inserting themselves into the 2000 presidential campaign, they ensured Bush's election which would swing the court to a conservative direction. The Nine has received mostly positive reviews with the New York Times saying, "When it comes to covering the United States Supreme Court as a living, breathing, human institution rather than as a collection of icons, The Nine is state of the art."