We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,751,748.61 | Books Available: 730,278 | Members Online: 47

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Closed Chambers: The First Eyewitness Account of the Epic Struggles Inside the Supreme Court

Closed Chambers The First Eyewitness Account of the Epic Struggles Inside the Supreme Court
Author: Edward P. Lazarus

The Supreme Court of the United States is the most powerful court in the world.  It is also the branch of our government most shrouded in mystery, misunderstanding, and myth..  Isolated in a marble temple, supposedly insulated from the pressures of politics, nine unelected Justices are charged with protecting our most cherish...  more »ed rights and shaping our fundamental laws.  They are assisted by roughly thirty-six law clerks each year, the best and brightest  of the nation's young lawyers, who routinely  go on to fill the highest ranks of our government, courts, law schools, and law firms.

Never before has one of these clerks stepped forward to reveal how the Court really works--and why it often fails the country and the cause of justice. In this groundbreaking book, award-winning historian Edward Lazarus, a former clerk to Justice Harry A. Blackmun, guides the reader through the Court's inner sanctum, explaining as only an eyewitness can the collisions of law, politics, and personality as the Justices wrestle with the most fiercely disputed issues of our time.  Part memoir, past history, and all spellbinding narrative, Closed Chambers provides an intimate portrait and devastating  critique--Justice by Justice--of a court at war with itself and in neglect of its constitutional  duties.

From the conservative Chief Justice Rehnquist's apparent attempt to influence the 1992 election by delaying a crucial abortion case to liberal champion Justice William Brennan's ill-conceived and ultimately self-defeating campaign to sabotage the death penalty, Lazarus's riveting account shows us a Court broken into scheming factions whose members resort to crass political calculations and transparently hypocritical arguments as they discard legal principles for bottomline results.  The Justices further compound this cliquish antagonism by granting excessive power to immature, ideologically driven clerks, who then use that power to manipulate their bosses and the institution they ostensibly serve.

Edward Lazarus took part in the Court's internal battles over the death penalty, affirmative action, abortion, and other momentous issues.  Here, he weaves together past and present to show us in astonishing detail not only the tragic failings of the modern Court, but also what led to them, and why they are so devastating for the nation.  Unprecedented in its revelations and unparalleled in the brilliance of its analysis, Closed Chambers is the most important book on the Supreme Court in a generation.

ISBN-13: 9780812924022
ISBN-10: 0812924029
Publication Date: 3/31/1998
Pages: 576
Rating:

Currently 2.5/5 Stars.

2.5 stars, based on 1 rating

Publisher: Crown
Book Type: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Law >> Rules & Procedures >> Courts
Law >> Legal Theory & Systems >> Legal History
Engineering & Transportation >> Law >> Procedures & Litigation >> Courts

Back to the Top ↑

Search - Closed Chambers: The First Eyewitness Account of the Epic Struggles Inside the Supreme Court

Loading...