Toobin Talks Book, Bench, and Beloved (Alma Mater)

How would you feel if Bob Woodward called your book “a remarkable achievement?”

“Fabulous,” says Jeffrey R. Toobin ’82, whose latest book, “The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court,” received just that accolade from just that person.

Woodward’s 1979 book “The Brethren” gave America its first behind-the-bench look at the Supreme Court, and “The Nine” seems poised to join it as a courtroom classic. Toobin’s book has been on the New York Times best seller list for 17 weeks, and at the end of 2007, everyone from the Times to Time had “The Nine” as one of its ten best books of the year.

And guess where all of that success brings him? Right back to Harvard.

“The irony is that I sort of live my life like a first year law student; I get to skim off the interesting issues,” the 1986 Harvard Law School (HLS) graduate says. “I don’t have to deal with whatever boring project a client takes in. I have the luxury of only dealing with subjects that engage people.”

In person, Toobin seems more like a student than the prominent legal mind that he is. During our interview, he swiveled his chair with the restless energy of a 20-something and laughed away his wife’s suggestion that he get a Blackberry.

But his youthful demeanor belies his accomplished resume: an editor of the Harvard Law Review, an associate counsel on the Oliver North/Iran-Contra trial, and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney—all by age 32.

At that point, in 1993, Toobin left the practice of law to cover legal affairs for The New Yorker, and a year later, he shot to notoriety when he revealed the O.J. Simpson defense team’s plan to play “the race card.” He joined ABC News as its senior legal commentator in 1996, and moved to CNN in 2002. His second career as a journalist has already garnered him an Emmy Award, for his coverage of Elian Gonzales in 2000, and produced three bestselling books.

And yet, while the road to where he is has not been straight, his manner doesn’t betray any career fatigue. In fact, he still seems to be enjoying the novelty of it all.

“I started freelancing for The New Republic when I was in law school, but I always thought it was going to be just a hobby,” Toobin says.

Equal parts pundit and pal, Toobin is in his element translating arcane legal-ese into plain English. And that he credits to Harvard Law.

Toobin’s school ties are thick and fast: he met his wife, Amy B. McIntosh ’80, as an undergraduate, and his law school classmate and good friend Elena Kagan is now HLS dean.

At this point, over half of the Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court are graduates of Harvard Law School, and two—Chief Justice John G. Roberts ’76 and Associate Justice David H. Souter ’61—are graduates of Harvard College. He won’t name names, but Toobin talked to several Justices and around 75 former Supreme Court clerks in researching the book.

Not everyone was willing to talk, but Toobin said those who did recognized that the person on the other end spoke the same language they did: the arcane and obscure language of law. And given the Supreme Court’s history of secrecy—“it’s no coincidence that there are no cameras in that courtroom,” Toobin says—he needed all the goodwill he could muster to write this book.

“The Nine” goes behind and around the curtain at the Supreme Court to track the rise of the conservative movement, beginning with the creation of the Federalist Society in 1982 and not ending until the close of the judicial term last June. In his book, Toobin makes the point that the Supreme Court is as much at the mercy of politics as any other branch of government, no matter how much anyone wants to believe that the Justices are above the fray.

“Occasionally during Supreme Court nominations senators will say, ‘This is just about competence.’ No, it’s not about competence.” Toobin says. “When you are deciding about whether the Constitution allows a state university to consider race in admission, or allows states to ban abortion, there are no right or wrong answers. You can’t answer those questions with your extreme legal competence. Those are political decisions.”

No question is more political than the abortion question, which the Supreme Court decided in 1973 is protected by a right to privacy. In his book, Toobin calls the landmark case “perhaps the clearest difference between the two parties,” and in numerous interviews he has said that abortion is the issue facing the court and country today.

“Only one thing matters in terms of what the future holds for Roe, and it is the outcome of presidential elections,” Toobin says. “If a Republican wins in 2008, Roe v. Wade is going to be overturned. If a Democrat wins, it’s going to be upheld, period, end of story. That’s a rather crude view, but I hold it dearly.”

Toobin specifically timed the release of “The Nine” to coincide with the beginning of the presidential primary season in an effort to force the future of the Court to the front of voters’ minds. And if sales figures are any indication, he is succeeding. As of our interview, the book had been out for less than three months and was already in its tenth printing. But as a lawyer and as a journalist, he’s keeping all sides of the story in mind.

“The polling data suggests that the strong partisans care deeply about the Court. But the vast middle of the electorate, which decides the outcome of elections, doesn’t focus on the Court much,” Toobin says.

“I think particularly as we get to the general election, people will start to come to the realization that in the next four years, there are likely to be three vacancies. In the next eight years, you’re looking at four or five. This is an extremely consequential election for the future of the Court.”

—Staff writer Jillian J. Goodman can be reached at jjgoodman@fas.harvard.edu.