"The Great Decision: Jefferson, Adams, Marshall, and the Battle for the Supreme Court" by Cliff Sloan and David McKean (PublicAffairs 2009)

This was the book I brought with me when I went to visit my parents in Arizona during my school's Spring Break.  It is the first time in a long time I have gotten though an entire book in just a week.  It reminded me that I need to read more!

As a lawyer and an legal educator, I am of course familiar with the case of Marbury v. Madison.  However, I really only knew the very basics of the case and its importance in the legal history of the United States.  So I really enjoyed reading more about this obviously important case.



The US Supreme Court

In case you are unaware of this case, it is the landmark case from 1803 that gave the US judiciary the ability to determine whether laws are constitutional or not.  This is something we take for granted today but it was very much an open question early in our country's history.  Very few people at the time anticipated the strong and co-equal judicial branch we have today.  There were a lot of politics involved in the case because the actions being reviewed took place as John Adams was leaving office and Thomas Jefferson was taking Adams' place. Adams made some last minute federal appointments that Jefferson did not want to honor because there was an error in the delivery of the commissions.  The Court had to decide whether the men Adams appointed were entitled to their positions or not. 

I read a lot of historical non-fiction books and sometimes they can have a very academic and thereby dry feeling to them.  Fortunately, this book did not fall into that category.  It was a pretty fast read and it flowed really well in a story-like manner.  I really enjoyed reading it and found it hard to put down when I got into the meat of it.  I learned a lot of new things about the case.  I am going to add this to my list of books that I recommend to my paralegal students if they are interested in legal history.

"Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court" by Sandra Day O'Connor (Random House 2013)

In March of 2014, I went to visit my parents at their winter home in Arizona.  One of my main objectives while I was there was to go to the Tucson Festival of Books at the University of Arizona.  I am a big fan of book festivals and this was my second time at this particular festival.  I am a US Supreme Court junkie and wanted to see a talk by retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.  We were really lucky we got in as the line was already long by the time we got there and I think I and my parrents were literally the last people they let in.  My dad didn't even get a seat. Her talk was primarily about her work as an advocate for civics education in schools.  It was interesting, although I was hoping to hear more about her experiences on the Court.

At the festival, there is a tent where you can buy books by the authors presenting there.  That is where I picked up this book.  It was a quick read and generally enjoyable, but I think it is targeted towards people who are largely unfamiliar with the Supreme Court and its history.  I didn't really come away having learned anything new, aside from the fact that there is a basketball court above the courtroom.  That I didn't know.

I also wasn't thrilled with the style of writing, which again I think is because of its target audience.  The language is a bit too informal for my liking for this kind of topic.  For example, I tend to not like the use of exclamation points in nonfiction work as a way of emphasizing a point.  There were a lot of exclamation points in this book! (irony intended).  Also, there was a lot of repetition of facts from chapter to chapter which was distracting for me but probably a good reenforcement technique for readers new to the topic.  Law can be a bit dry and this book isn't at all dry.

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book.  It certainly wasn't a waste of time because it only took me a few days to get through and I always like to hear about "behind the scenes" aspects of the Court from the point of view of a Justice.  I would definitely recommend this book for those less familiar with the Court and I will add it to my list of recommended reading for my paralegal students who are interested in this topic.