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In September 2005, six former law clerks carried Chief Justice William Rehnquist's casket up the forty-four marble steps of the Supreme Court building. The stairs were designed to lift the Court above everyday politics, a physical symbol that justice operated on a higher plane. But on this day, the climb carried a different meaning. Rehnquist's death marked the end of something—and the beginning of something else.
The other justices lined up in order of seniority. Stephen Breyer stood first, then Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Clarence Thomas, Antonin Scalia, Sandra Day O'Connor, and John Paul Stevens. Two justices were absent, unable to arrive before the funeral the next day. O'Connor herself was retiring. President George W. Bush would now fill two vacancies, and the Court was about to change.
Jeffrey Toobin's book, *The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court*, covers a thirty-five-year transformation. It begins with the Reagan administration in the 1980s and traces the conservative legal movement's long campaign to reshape the Court. The conservatives had a clear agenda: overturn Roe v. Wade, expand executive power, end racial preferences, speed executions, and welcome religion into public life. For decades, they had come close but fallen short.
The problem was that Republican presidents kept appointing justices who didn't reliably vote conservative. David Souter, nominated by George H.W. Bush, turned out to be a moderate. Anthony Kennedy, appointed by Reagan, often sided with liberals. And Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the Court, became the most powerful swing vote in American history. She dominated decisions on abortion, affirmative action, and religion. Her philosophy was simple: find the middle ground. She had an uncanny ability to gauge public opinion, and she kept her rulings tethered to what most Americans would accept.
This frustrated hardline conservatives enormously. They didn't need better arguments, they realized. They needed new justices.
The 2005 funeral captured that moment perfectly. Rehnquist's casket ascending the steps wasn't just a funeral procession. It was the conservative counterrevolution arriving at the Court's door. The balance was about to tip. And the question hanging in the air was simple: how quickly would the change come?
About the Book
In The Nine, Jeffrey Toobin exposes the secret world of the Supreme Court's dramatic shift from liberal to conservative. Spanning from Reagan to 2007, this gripping narrative reveals the political battles, pivotal cases like Bush v. Gore, and the justices—O'Connor, Kennedy, Thomas—who shaped a revolution. A masterful look at how the Court lost its political innocence.
Key Takeaways
The law is a mirror of the nation's soul, not a blueprint from on high.
The Supreme Court's decisions do not emerge from an ivory tower of pure legal reasoning; they reflect the shifting political and cultural currents of the country. The conservative counterrevolution succeeded not just through strategic appointments, but because the nation itself had moved rightward on many issues.
Power is patient; it waits for the right people in the right seats.
The conservative legal movement understood that changing the Court required not better arguments, but reliable justices. They learned that ideology must be proven, loyalty absolute, and commitment unwavering—a lesson that turned Supreme Court nominations into the central battleground of American politics.
A single swing vote can hold the weight of a generation's hopes and fears.
Sandra Day O'Connor's centrist philosophy—anchoring rulings to what most Americans would accept—made her the most powerful woman in American history. Her departure showed how one person's sense of balance can preserve or unravel decades of precedent.
Trauma can transform a judge from a partisan into a statesman.
After the public humiliation of Bush v. Gore, Justice Anthony Kennedy began looking beyond America's borders for guidance, citing European courts on gay rights and the death penalty. His personal wound opened the Court to a broader, more humane vision of justice.
Precedent is a fragile bridge between the past and the future.
The 1992 Casey decision saved Roe v. Wade not by reaffirming it wholeheartedly, but by redefining it—showing that even when a landmark is preserved, its meaning can shift. The same justices who upheld a right can also hollow it out.
In times of fear, the judiciary is the last wall against the tyranny of the majority.
After 9/11, Justice O'Connor wrote that 'a state of war is not a blank check for the president,' insisting that even enemy combatants had the right to challenge their detention. Her words remind us that the rule of law must endure precisely when it is most inconvenient.
The most dangerous power is the ability to decide an election and declare it applies to no other case.
In Bush v. Gore, the Court stopped a recount with a ruling that set no precedent—a decision that shattered the illusion of judicial neutrality. Justice Stevens warned that the true loser was 'the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.'
A movement's victory can arrive in a funeral procession.
When Chief Justice Rehnquist's casket ascended the Supreme Court steps, it marked not just an ending but the arrival of the conservative counterrevolution. The long campaign to reshape the Court finally reached its destination—not in a courtroom, but in the quiet symbolism of a stairway.
Who Should Listen?
Political junkies fascinated by the behind-the-scenes power struggles that shape American law and society.
Law students or legal professionals seeking a vivid, insider account of the Court's ideological transformation.
History buffs interested in how the Reagan-era conservative movement achieved its long-term judicial goals.
Anyone confused by today's partisan Supreme Court battles who wants to understand how we got here.
