Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justice By Noah Feldman

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A history of the careers and constitutional visions of four U.S. Supreme Court Justices appointed by Franklin Roosevelt.A tiny, ebullient Jew who started as America’s leading liberal and ended as its most famous judicial conservative. A Klansman who became an absolutist advocate of free speech and civil rights. A backcountry lawyer who started off trying cases about cows and went on to conduct the most important international trial ever. A self-invented, tall-tale Westerner who narrowly missed the presidency but expanded individual freedom beyond what anyone before had dreamed.Four more different men could hardly be imagined. Yet they had certain things in common. Each was a self-made man who came from humble beginnings on the edge of poverty. Each had driving ambition and a will to succeed. Each was, in his own way, a genius.Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, Felix Frankfurter, and Robert Jackson began as close allies and friends of FDR. But the quest to shape a new Constitution led them to competition and sometimes outright warfare. Scorpions tells the story of these four great justices: their relationship with Roosevelt, with each other, and with the turbulent world of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. It also serves as a history of the modern Constitution itself.Praise for Scorpions“Smart and engaging.” —New York Times Book Review“Full of high-stakes intellectual drama.” —Washington Post“A first-rate work of narrative history that succeeds in bringing the intellectual and political battles of the post-Roosevelt Court vividly to life.” —Publishers Weekly

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One would think that a book about 4 Supreme Court Justices written by a Harvard academic would be a real dozer; dry, dull, boring, and full of legalese. Happily I can report that that is most certainly not the case with this story of Justices Frankfurter, Douglas, Jackson, and Black. I would never have risked purchasing this book but for the positive review of a GR friend (thanks Matt) as my experience with books by academics is not good. Academics seem to write for other academics and not the general reading public which is most unfortunate as it is the public that needs to read these books. But my friend's review stirred my interest so I bought the book, read it, and enjoyed it immensely.Mr. Feldman has given us a book that primarily traces the professional careers of these 4 eminent justices but the main focus is on their tenures on the SCOTUS. Each justice's life is given in detail sufficient to understand their adult lives and careers but this book is not a full blown biography of each of these men. If I understand the author's position he believes these 4 men entered the SCOTUS as liberal New Deal appointees of FDR united in their loyalty to their president and his programs to rebuild the American economy and then win a war. At first these men were allies and something of a team in their efforts to aid the efforts of FDR and the New Deal. But this unity was not to last. After FDR died in 1945 the team lost their captain and the New Deal was part of the past. This is when the book, for me, became interesting, very interesting.The only thing these 4 men had in common was FDR and now he was gone. What may have struck the author and most readers as odd was, to me, hardly anything but predictable. These men were all very intelligent, accomplished, ambitious, LAWYERS. These men were all classic Type A personalities or they would never have achieved the acclaim needed to be appointed to the SCOTUS. As a retired lawyer I think I would not be telling tales out of school to reveal that the members of my profession are not strong team players. Mostly lawyers are prima donnas and lone wolves and sharing spotlights runs against the grain. What I found unusual was that these 4 men were ever able to work cohesively together at all regardless of their loyalty to FDR but they did. Once FDR was gone, however, it should have surprised nobody that they started to split up and even became hostile to one another. The hostility brings us to another aspect of this book I enjoyed.It was more than a little amusing to read about the behind the scenes behavior of these justices. The SCOTUS has been traditionally cloaked in secrecy and very little is ever revealed about what goes on it that building across the street from the Capitol but this book gives us an eye full. In the course of discussing some of the major decisions reached by the Court during the tenures of these men the author reveals the motivations and reasoning, personal and political, that affected these decisions. This book clearly details the humanity of these 4 members of SCOTUS. While justices of the SCOTUS are the pinnacle of the American legal profession and are regarded as almost god-like in stature this book shows us that they are also human and that is rather disturbing as well as comforting. The author also traces what I believe is a universal fault of those that reach this pinnacle of our profession.In the course of tracing the evolution of SCOTUS decisions rendered during the tenures of these 4 justices the author details the attempts of each justice to formulate his own legal philosophy. This is what I consider a fault of being a SCOTUS justice. Each justice attempts to create some sort of mechanical system that will allow him/her to approach and decide each case in a consistent manner. The author's discussion of Justice Frankfurter's anguish over the Brown v Board of Education case most clearly illustrates the problems with creating such a consistent philosophy. Frankfurter clearly wanted to rule to end segregation but his philosophy of judicial restraint conflicted with his desired outcome. He didn't want to be viewed as inconsistent and he tortured himself about how to reconcile his desired outcome with his philosophy. To my mind the only consistency a judge should strive to achieve is a just outcome using the law as a guide but not as straightjacket. If the law was meant to be applied mechanically then it wouldn't have been placed in the hands of human beings. The law is a tool to be intelligently used by humans to achieve justice and creating a legal philosophy will eventually only put a judge in the same position Frankfurter found himself in with the Brown case. We lawyers love to over-think things sometimes.On the whole I found this book to be a work that can be read by a layman as well as a lawyer and appreciated by both. The author ably treats his subjects and the details of SCOTUS history and the evolution of Court decisions in a manner easily understandable to any reader without it appearing to be dumb-downed. The wealth of inside information and history is a joy and a revelation to discover and part of the value of reading histories. If you are interested in FDR, the Depression, the New Deal, or the modern SCOTUS then this book would be something you should definitely read and enjoy. (less)flag4 likes · comment · see review

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