CNN Senior Supreme Court Analyst Joan Biskupic provides an inside look at the history-making era in the Supreme Court during the Trump and post-Trump years, from its seismic shift to the Right to its controversial decisions, including its reversal of Roe v. Wade, based on access to all the key players.
Biskupic, an accomplished and well-sourced journalist, knows the court as well as anyone now covering it ... The deeper message of Nine Black Robes is that even with a new president in office we remain captive to the Age of Trump. His influence lives on, Biskupic suggests, in the court itself ... A quiet urgency ripples through this informative, briskly paced and gracefully written book.
Biskupic opens a window onto the opaque, insular world of the justices to show an institution sinking gradually into crisis ... Biskupic is a longtime chronicler of the court, and Nine Black Robes puts on display her connections within its chambers. The book is packed with references to insights shared with her by unnamed justices. She reveals the deliberations and negotiations that took place behind the scenes in a number of high-profile cases.
Nine Black Robes is well researched. Biskupic plumbs the papers of the late William Brennan, a liberal appointed by Dwight D Eisenhower in 1956. But her book also contains more than its fair share of chambers chatter ... Biskupic captures the unease of some court members at being used as props by Trump.
