Let me give you some background about myself: I’m more attuned to absorb broad knowledge than deep understanding. I can work at truly incisive wisdom about a topic, but my default mode is sound-bites and headlines. What can I say, at least I recognize it. For that reason, I was aware of some Supreme Court nominations and cases that came and went, but I had no more than a vague awareness that they were there.

Jeffrey Toobin’s The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court was a fascinating read. It gave me historical and legal background about the major Supreme Court cases of my time. It gave me historical and political background about the Supreme Court justices of my time. I found the style engaging and interesting, if a bit long winded. There were entirely too many occasions when I said to myself, “haven’t I read this before?” However, Toobin repeated entire passages for reasons — obviously he didn’t repeat himself by mistake — and it’s a nit-pick when viewing the entirety of the work.

There are critics of Toobin who claim he is too partisan one way or another; too pro or con one justice or another. I know that the Volokh Conspiracy in particular has issues with his views. They are probably right, but I wasn’t expecting an erudite treatise on constitutional law; I was expecting a description of the Supreme Court, and that’s exactly what I got.