by Edward Lazarus



Editorial Reviews

Edward Lazarus, a former Supreme Court clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun,
spills the beans on an institution that values silence. Nobody is supposed
to understand what happens behind the scenes of the high court--that's why
the justices rarely speak to the media--but Lazarus tells all he knows
from his time as a top aide to Blackmun in the Supreme Court's 1988 term.
There's a lot of legal theory and history, but it's well presented and
usually focuses on touchstone issues in U.S. politics; cases involving
abortion, the death penalty, and racial preferences receive sustained
treatment in these pages. There are gossipy bits, too, revealing
unflattering details about several current justices. Sure to be one of the
more controversial books of the year. --John J. Miller

Product Description:

An inside look at the most secretive institution in the American
government--the Supreme Court.

Operating inside a network of Byzantine secrecy, the United States Supreme
Court is the most powerful judicial institution in the world. Nine
unelected justices, supposedly insulated from the pressure of politics,
are charged with protecting our most cherished rights and shaping our
fundamental laws.

In this eloquent, trailblazing account, Edward Lazarus, who served as a
clerk to Justice Harry Blackmun, provides an insider's guided tour of a
court at war with itself and often in neglect of its constitutional
duties. He 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, part history, and all spellbinding narrative, Closed
Chambers provides an intimate portrait--Justice by Justice--of the battles
and compromises of the highest court in the land.

Product Details

Paperback: 576 pages
Publisher: Penguin Books; Updated edition (June 1, 1999)
ISBN: 0140283560