The Oath

The Obama White House and The Supreme Court

by Jeffrey Toobin

ebook

1 of 1 copy available

From the prizewinning author of The Nine, a gripping insider's account of the momentous ideological war between the John Roberts Supreme Court and the Obama administration.
From the moment John Roberts, the chief justice of the United States, blundered through the Oath of Office at Barack Obama's inauguration, the relationship between the Supreme Court and the White House has been confrontational. Both men are young, brilliant, charismatic, charming, determined to change the course of the nation—and completely at odds on almost every major constitutional issue. One is radical; one essentially conservative. The surprise is that Obama is the conservative—a believer in incremental change, compromise, and pragmatism over ideology. Roberts—and his allies on the Court—seek to overturn decades of precedent: in short, to undo the ultimate victory FDR achieved in the New Deal.
This ideological war will crescendo during the 2011-2012 term, in which several landmark cases are on the Court's docket—most crucially, a challenge to Obama's controversial health-care legislation. With four new justices joining the Court in just five years, including Obama's appointees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, this is a dramatically—and historically—different Supreme Court, playing for the highest of stakes.
No one is better positioned to chronicle this dramatic tale than Jeffrey Toobin, whose prize-winning bestseller The Nine laid bare the inner workings and conflicts of the Court in meticulous and entertaining detail. As the nation prepares to vote for President in 2012, the future of the Supreme Court will also be on the ballot.

Creators
- Jeffrey Toobin
  
  Author
Publisher

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Release date

September 18, 2012
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  - ISBN: 9780385536301
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  - ISBN: 9780385536301
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Languages
- English
Reviews
- Publisher's Weekly
  
  September 24, 2012
  Toobin, a staff writer for The New Yorker, adds to his works of political analysis (including 2008's The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court) with this thorough exploration of the relationship between the Supreme Court and the Obama administration. After discussing the repercussions of Chief Justice John Roberts botching the oath at the 2009 presidential inauguration, Toobin sets the stage by reviewing Roberts' professional background, as well as Obama's views on the Constitution and the "precocious political skills" that enabled him to rise to the top. Toobin profiles new, current, and former justices, providing glimpses into their personal and professional lives while highlighting their individual personalities and talents, demonstrating what each justice brings to the Court, and how these factors affect their interactions. With great attention to detail, he also expounds on the outcomes and implications of many recent cases, including Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, and the recent ruling on the Affordable Care Act. Though Toobin's exhaustively researched study is marred by a haphazard structure and weak conclusion, it is nevertheless as readable, and informative, as his magazine pieces, and will greatly interest those involved in politics.
- Kirkus
  
  September 1, 2012
  A skillful probing of the often-discordant relationship between the president and the Supreme Court. Having previously examined the intricate machinations of the Supreme Court, CNN and New Yorker legal analyst Toobin (The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, 2008) again turns his scrupulous eye to the Court's current and future impact on the Obama administration. The author lays the groundwork for his examination by citing Chief Justice John Roberts' awkward 2009 fumbling of the presidential oath of office (later re-administered, to Obama's annoyance) and proceeds to retrace Court history and the persistent political distance separating the presidential seat and the justices. Setting a congenial yet authoritative tone, Toobin notes that Obama and Roberts also share similarities as academic overachievers who attended Harvard Law School and officiated the student-produced Harvard Law Review. Their differences, writes the author, are rooted in the application of the Constitution: Obama believes in traditional values and stability, while Roberts is eager for the Supreme Court to usher in new changes and an evolving understanding of the Constitution's core signification. Toobin deftly tracks Roberts' political history and examines issues that best tested the Court's decisiveness--e.g., abortion, gun control, radical protests and health care. A consummate profiler, Toobin nimbly features key Supreme Court justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony Kennedy, Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan and "intellectual pathbreaker" Clarence Thomas. Culled primarily from interviews with unnamed justices and their respective law clerks, Toobin offers a well-balanced, literate and interpretative survey of the multifaceted intercourse between the conservative Supreme Court and our liberal president. Shrewd and elucidating.
  COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
- Library Journal
  
  April 1, 2012
  Having laid bare the workings of the Supreme Court in his prize-winning The Nine, Toobin returns to assess how the Court--and, specifically, Chief Justice John Roberts--stack up against President Obama. From the moment that Roberts blew administering the Oath of Office at Obama's inauguration, he and the administration have been ideologically at odds. Toobin argues that the two men are both charismatic and ambitious, though Obama's actually the conservative one; he aims for step-by-step change, building on the past, while Roberts wants to unstitch everything accomplished by the New Deal. Essential reading as we gear up for the election.
  
  Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- Booklist
  
  Starred review from September 15, 2012
  From the awkward swearing-in of President Obama by Chief Justice Roberts to Obama's caustic reaction to the Citizens United ruling to Roberts' support of Obama's health-care law, the tumultuous relationship between the administration and the Supreme Court has been increasingly evident. Both Harvard-educated lawyers, Obama and Roberts are known for their charm and intelligence, but their very different political perspectives have promised friction from the beginning, particularly as changes in the composition of the court resonate with the changes in national politics. Legal analyst Toobin offers a vivid inside look at the personalities and politics behind the fractious relationship. Roberts' honeymoon lasted 12 months before the fault lines in the court cracked along ideological lines, with conservatives disappointed in his attempts at equanimity and liberals distrustful of his behind-the-scenes maneuverings. Toobin details the politics behind decisions about what cases even get heard as well as the procedural strategies that affect the final rulings. Among the highlights: Ginsburg's scathing dissent on a ruling against a claim of pay disparity, in which she urged congressional action; Souter's caustic dissent in Citizens United that questioned Roberts' integrity; and Scalia's bitter disappointment in Roberts' decision on the health-care law. A revealing look at the ideological battle between the White House and the Supreme Court. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The best-selling author of The Nine (2007) revisits the Supreme Court in a timely book that is sure to draw plenty of interest during the election season.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)
- Library Journal
  
  Starred review from October 15, 2012
  Best-selling author Toobin (staff writer, The New Yorker; The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court) returns to the Supreme Court in his latest book. With the 2012 election approaching, this well-timed title examines the relationship between the Roberts court and the Obama White House. Toobin paints a portrait of a president and chief justice who are not so very different in some regards--young and passionate, graduates of Harvard Law, dedicated to change--but whose profound philosophical differences have resulted in a tense relationship between those two branches of government. Though the work can occasionally feel a bit disjointed, Toobin's focus on the personalities involved, especially his attention to the dynamics within the Court, enlivens the legal analysis and creates a kind of narrative. VERDICT Toobin has made a career of writing a compelling and readable mix of legal analysis and storytelling. Timely, entertaining, and insightful, this book is no different, and fans of his previous work will find more to enjoy here. Court watchers and politics junkies will delight in this fascinating examination of a crucial moment in Supreme Court history.--Rachel Bridgewater, Portland Community Coll. Lib.
  
  Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
- BookPage
  
  There are two theses running through The Oath, Jeffrey Toobin’s follow-up to his 2008 Supreme Court profile, The Nine. The first is that former constitutional law professor Barack Obama and current Chief Justice John Roberts have fundamentally opposed theories of constitutional interpretation. As Toobin writes, it is Roberts who is an “apostle of change” and Obama who is “determined to hold on to an older version of the meaning of the Constitution.” The book bills itself by this difference, but Toobin fails to deliver a thorough portrait on the president’s end. Though he convincingly argues that judicial matters are not high among the president’s priorities, Toobin offers little about Obama’s legal philosophy. The Oath is really an up-close look at recent high-profile cases on the Supreme Court’s docket.That brings us to the book’s second thesis: Constitutional law is politics by other means, at least in the current day. This sentiment pervades the discussion of the cases at the book’s core: District of Columbia v. Heller’s location of an individual right to a handgun in the Second Amendment; Citizens United and the Court’s equation of corporate campaign contributions with speech; and this summer’s decision to uphold the individual mandate in Obama’s healthcare law. In each of these cases, Toobin sees a battle between Democrats and Republicans. Legal theories serve as proxies for partisan politics. Some might view this equivalence as overly simplistic and the emphasis on big-ticket cases as unduly narrow. Yet it is difficult to refute the notion that the Court has taken a conservative tack—even prior to Roberts—that relies on overturning legal precedent.Overall, The Oath is an entertaining read that provides lively personal accounts of the justices and that makes complex legal issues understandable. It is a welcome portrait of the contemporary Supreme Court.