The Oath: The Obama White House v. The Supreme Court

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The Oath: The Obama White House v. The Supreme Court Page 36

by Jeffrey Toobin


  1 “make constitutional law on his own”: Jack Beatty, Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865–1900, p. 176. Beatty points out that Davis’s credibility was suspect because Karl Marx (!) complained that Davis had misquoted him in a report. On Santa Clara, see also Morton J. Horwitz, The Transformation of American Law, 1870–1960, pp. 66–71.

  2 “ ‘the government is best which governs least’ ”: Horwitz, The Transformation of American Law, p. 33.

  3 “then he did not stay bought”: Frick made the comment to the journalist Oswald Garrison Villard, who recounted it in his book Fighting Years, p. 181.

  4 required extensive disclosure of campaign contributions and expenditures: Samuel Issacharoff, Pamela S. Karlan, and Richard H. Pildes, The Law of Democracy, p. 334.

  5 Warren Burger, Potter Stewart, Lewis Powell, and William Rehnquist: Seth Stern and Stephen Wermiel, Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion, p. 442.

  6 Congress had tried to set up a tightly controlled system for financing campaigns: Frank J. Sorauf, Inside Campaign Finance: Myths and Realities, pp. 238–39.

  CHAPTER 12: SAMUEL ALITO’S QUESTION

  1 named Bossie his “chief researcher” and the pair narrowed their focus to the personal and financial affairs of Bill and Hillary Clinton: Joe Conason and Gene Lyons, The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton, pp. 72–75.

  2 various Washington journalists who printed or broadcast his accusations: Sidney Blumenthal, The Clinton Wars, pp. 76–77.

  3 he had doctored certain transcripts to eliminate exculpatory information about Hillary Clinton: Howard Kurtz, “Some Reporters Heard Unedited Tapes,” Washington Post, May 11, 1998. See also Blumenthal, The Clinton Wars, pp. 443–44.

  4 “conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for president”: Jeffrey Toobin, A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought Down a President, pp. 254–56.

  CHAPTER 13: THE ROOKIE

  1 social studies to fifth and sixth graders: For the reflection of one former Gloria Kagan student, see Blake Eskin, “The Ghost of Mrs. Kagan,” http://​www.​newyorker.​com/​online/​blogs/​newsdesk/​2010/​05/​the-​ghost-​of-​mrs-​kagan.​html.

  CHAPTER 14: THE NINETY-PAGE SWAN SONG OF JOHN PAUL STEVENS

  1 embezzled funds from the insurance company to prop up the hotel: Bill Barnhart and Gene Schlickman, John Paul Stevens: An Independent Life, p. 31.

  2 one of the boys was forced to open a safe in the first-floor library: Barnhart and Schlickman, John Paul Stevens, pp. 32–33.

  CHAPTER 15: “WITH ALL DUE DEFERENCE TO SEPARATION OF POWERS”

  1 spotty at best in recent years: Pete Williams of NBC News compiled the statistics: http://​firstread.​msnbc.​msn.​com/​_news/​2011/​01/​25/​5914956-​will-​chief-​justice-​roberts-​be-​in-​attendance-​after-​all. See also Adam Liptak, “For Justices, State of the Union Can Be a Trial,” New York Times, Jan. 23, 2012, http://​www.​nytimes.​com/​2012/​01/​24/​us/​state-​of-​the-​union-​can-​be-​a-​trial-​for-​supreme-​court-​justices.​html.

  2 “juvenile spectacle”: Adam Liptak, “Six Justices to Attend State of the Union,” Jan. 25, 2011, New York Times, http://​www.​nytimes.​com/​2011/​01/​26/​us/​politics/​26justices.​html?​_r=3.

  CHAPTER 16: THE RETIRED JUSTICES DISSENT

  1 “and have them all over”: http://​www​.abajournal​.com​/news​/article​/oconnor​_lawyers​_judges​_need​_to​_wake​_up​_to​_judicial​_funding​_threat​_prep​_for​_​/.

  2 call meant that he had died: http://​www.​lvrj.​com/​news/​robocall-​mishap-​shows-​nevadans-​dont-​want-​any-​questions-​at-​1-​a-m—​105​738278.​html?​ref=​278.

  3 “So forget it. It’s over!”: Jeffrey Rosen, “Why I Miss Sandra Day O’Connor,” July 1, 2011, http://​www.​tnr.​com/​article/​politics/​91146/​sandra-​day-​o-​connor-​supreme-​court-​alito.

  4 “It’s not always positive”: Joan Biskupic, “O’Connor Says Rulings Being ‘Dismantled,’ ” Jan. 5, 2010, http://​www.​usatoday.​com/​news/​washington/​judicial/​2009-​10-​05-​sandra-​day-​oconnor_N.​htm.

  CHAPTER 17: SOFTBALL POLITICS

  1 laying out the absurdities of contemporary confirmation hearings: Elena Kagan, “Confirmation Messes, Old and New,” 62 University of Chicago Law Review 919 (1995), http://​lawreview.​uchicago.​edu/​archive/​Front%​20Page/​Kagan/​Confirmation​Messes​Old​And​New.​pdf.

  2 “I know it when I see it”: Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 164, 197 (1964) (Stewart, J., concurring).

  CHAPTER 18: THE TEA PARTY AND THE JUSTICE’S WIFE

  1 “their belief in citizen activism”: Theda Skocpol and Vanessa Williamson, The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism, p. 53.

  2 “minimize the risk of another monarchy”: Glenn Beck, The Original Argument, p. xxv.

  3 “in academia claim it to mean”: Mark R. Levin, Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto, pp. 57, 60.

  4 family prominent in Republican politics: Jane Mayer and Jill Abramson, Strange Justice: The Selling of Clarence Thomas, pp. 144–45.

  5 “And you pay a penalty if you don’t”: Quoted in Paul Starr, Remedy and Reaction, p. 87.

  6 unless there was a mandate: Starr, Remedy and Reaction, pp. 87–88.

  7 the conservative Heritage Foundation: The plan was created by Stuart Butler and Edmund Haislmaier. See http://​online​.wsj​.com​/article​/SB10001424052970204618704576641190920152366​.html.

  8 repeated his support for the idea as recently as 2005: Josh Hicks, “Newt Gingrich’s Changing Stance on Health-Care Mandates,” Dec. 12, 2011, http://​www.​washingtonpost.​com/​blogs/​fact-​checker/​post/​newt-​gingrichs-​changing-​stance-​on-​health-​care-​mandates-​fact-​checker-​biography/​2011/​12/​09/​gIQAVl0lkO_​blog.​html.

  9 “Constitutional Implications of an ‘Individual Mandate’ in Health Care Reform”: See http://​www.​fed-​soc.​org/​publications/​detail/​constitutional-​implications-​of-​an-​individual-​mandate-​in-​health-​care-​reform.

  10 translating the Urbanowicz-Smith article into more colloquial language: David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey, “Constitutionality of Health Insurance Mandate Questioned,” Washington Post, Aug. 22, 2009, http://​www.​washingtonpost.​com/​wp-​dyn/​content/​article/​2009/​08/​21/​AR200908​2103033.​html.

  CHAPTER 19: THE THOMAS COURT

  1 Crow who made the $500,000 contribution to Liberty Central: Kenneth P. Vogel, Marin Cogan, and John Bresnahan, “Justice Thomas’s Wife Virginia Thomas Now a Lobbyist,” Politico, Feb. 4, 2011, http://​www.​politico.​com/​news/​stories/​0211/​48812.​html; Mike McIntire, “Friendship of Justice and Magnate Puts Focus on Ethics,” New York Times, June 18, 2011, http://​www.​nytimes.​com/​2011/​06/​19/​us/​politics/​19thomas.​html?​pagewanted=​all.

  2 who are leading benefactors of the Tea Party movement: Eric Lichtblau, “Common Cause Asks Court about Thomas Speech,” New York Times, Feb. 14, 2011, http://​www.​nytimes.​com/​2011/​02/​15/​us/​politics/​15thomas.​html. The circumstances of the appearances by Thomas and Scalia at the Koch brothers’ event are not clear. In his financial disclosure statement, Thomas listed reimbursement for a Federalist Society event at the time and place of the Koch event.

  3 “price to pay today for standing in defense of your Constitution”: The audiotape of this speech was first disclosed by Politico. Kenneth P. Vogel, “Defiant Clarence Thomas Fires Back,” Politico, Feb. 27, 2011, http://​www.​politico.​com/​news/​stories/​0211/​50277.​html.

  4 “He does not believe in stare decisis, period”: Ken Foskett, Judging Thomas: The Life and Times of Clarence Thomas, pp. 281–82.

  5 “the perversion of the Constitution to
ok off during the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt”: Kate Zernike, Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America, p. 70.

  CHAPTER 20: “DEMOCRACY IS NOT A GAME”

  1 his speech to raise money for the Spectator would have been inappropriate: On Alito’s speeches for the Spectator, see Lee Fang, “Exclusive: Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito Dismisses His Profligate Right-Wing Fundraising as ‘Not Important,’ ” Nov. 10, 2010, http://​think​progress.​org/​politics/​2010/​11/​10/​129395/​sam-​alito-​republican-​fundraiser/. See also http://​lawprofessors.​typepad.​com/​conlaw/​2010/​11/​alito-​and-​ethics.​html.

  CHAPTER 21: “YOU SHOULD DO IT”

  1 “the Court will accept that judgment”: John Q. Barrett, “Wickard v. Filburn (1942),” http://​www.​stjohns.​edu/​media/​3/​638cd9​94e84​84fd3​bdb84​1f31b​11952f.​pdf?d=​201.

  2 sweeping the hallways: Nina Totenberg, profile of Donald Verrilli, NPR, http://​www.​npr.​org/​2012/​03/​22/​148947199/​the-​man-​behind-​the-​defense-​of-​obamas-​health-​law.

  CHAPTER 22: BROCCOLI

  1 “you can make people buy broccoli”: For a history of the broccoli example in the health care case, see James B. Stewart, “How Broccoli Landed on Supreme Court Menu,” New York Times, June 14, 2012, http://​www.​nytimes.​com/​2012/​06/​14/​business/​how-​broccoli-​became-​a-​symbol-​in-​the-​health-​care-​debate.​html?​page​wanted=​all.

  CHAPTER 23: THE “EFFECTIVE” ARGUMENT

  1 “Some might consider the change trivial”: Stevens, Five Chiefs, p. 212.

  2 he thought Congress had exceeded its powers under the commerce clause in creating the individual mandate: In addition to my own reporting, I relied on the following sources in my account of the Court’s deliberations: Jan Crawford, “Roberts Switched Views to Uphold Health Care Law,” July 1, 2012, http://​www.​cbsnews.​com/​8301-​3460_​162–​57464549/​roberts-​switched-​views-​to-​uphold-​health-​care-​law/​?tag=​content​Main;​content​Body; Paul Campos, “Roberts Wrote Both Obamacare Opinions,” Salon, July 3, 2012, http://​www.​salon.​com/​2012/​07/​03/​roberts_​wrote_​both_​obamacare_​opinions/. See also http://​www.​volokh.​com/​2012/​07/​03/​so-​now-​we-​have-​supreme-​court-​leaks-​disagreeing-​with-​supreme-​court-​leaks/; http://​www.​volokh.​com/​2012/​07/​03/​more-​on-​the-​supreme-​court-​leak/.

  3 “a little bit up in the air”: Quoted at http://​www.​volokh.​com/​2012/​07/​03/​more-​on-​the-​supreme-​court-​leak/.

  4 “changing the relation between the citizen and the federal government”: Jan Crawford first made this connection. See http://​www.​cbsnews.​com/​8301-​3460_​162-​57464549/​roberts-​switched-​views-​to-​uphold-​health-​care-​law/​?tag=​content​Main;​content​Body.

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