Book Review: Jeffrey Toobin’s “The Oath”

Hello, readers! And now, for something completely different… this week, I’m reviewing The Oath, written by Jeffrey Toobin. Toobin is a well-known legal analyst who works for CNN and The New Yorker, and he is also a prominent political author. His last book before The Oath (released in 2012) was The Nine (released in 2007), which chronicled the Rehnquist Court, detailed several of that Court’s most important cases (including Bush v. Gore), and explained some of the inner workings of the Court in an appealing, straightforward format.

The Oath can be seen as a sequel to The Nine in the sense that it details the creation of the current Roberts Court and addresses some of the seminal cases from Roberts’ time as Chief Justice (e.g. Citizens United and District of Columbia v. Heller).  It reads in much the same way, and the explanations behind the cases as well as the profiles of the different justices feels familiar. However, the book’s subtitle is “The Obama White House and the Supreme Court,” so there is a greater focus on the interactions between the Executive Branch under President Obama and the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Roberts. Toobin also details the similarities and differences between the two men, including their backgrounds, their experiences at Harvard Law School, and their careers.

Let me make my biases clear: I thoroughly enjoyed The Nine, so I went into The Oath expecting an informative, engaging read. I have notoriously high expectations when it comes to books, though, so when I say that my expectations were met, it wasn’t just because I appreciated another work by Toobin. It’s because his prose in The Oath makes sometimes-obtuse Supreme Court decisions accessible, and his narration is compelling whether he’s describing historical precedent, Justice Souter’s retirement, or circumstances in the White House leading up to a nomination. It’s a fast read, to be sure, and part of that feeling comes from Toobin’s blend of background information and “present-day” narration as he takes readers from the botched Oath of Office at Obama’s 2009 Inauguration to the famous Healthcare Cases of 2012.

The book is divided into five parts, organized chronologically, and each part revolves around a major case (or set of cases) that the Roberts Court heard. At nearly three hundred pages, The Oath may seem like a long record of various Supreme Court decisions from 2009 until 2012, but few of those pages are devoted to the decisions themselves in comparison to the amount of backstory and analysis provided by Toobin. The choice to provide a more comprehensive view of the Roberts Court instead of a detailed constitutional analysis for each case probably aggravated legal scholars, but as an avid follower of the Supreme Court and an aspiring constitutional scholar, I was pleased with the variety of information that Toobin presented. For example, it was surprising to learn that, despite Justice Thomas’ silence on the bench, he has had great influence in the area of gun ownership and the interpretation of the Second Amendment.

I enjoyed learning about the role on the Court that each justice plays; the explanation of both the circumstances surrounding the cases and the ramifications of the Court’s decisions was intriguing, even when the outcomes frustrated me (see: Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.). Also, it is important to keep in mind that this book was written for a wider audience, not just the niche of constitutional law scholars or dedicated Supreme Court analysts. Toobin accomplishes what he sets out to do: give insight into the Roberts Court and narrate President Obama’s relationship with what is often considered the “independent” branch of our system of government. The Oath provides an interesting way to learn about what’s currently transpiring in the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Roberts, and Jeffrey Toobin’s work is well worth a read.