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The Obama White House and the Supreme Court: from The Oath
A Vintage Shorts Selection
The bestselling and prizewinning author of The Nine and American Heiress tells the dramatic and gripping insider’s story of the momentous ideological war fought between the Obama White House and the Supreme Court.
President Obama and Chief Justice Roberts could not be more different. Obama, a legal conservative grappling with the second amendment among other issues, believes in the close interpretation of the Constitution, incremental change, and pragmatism over ideology. But, for Roberts the law is all about winning. And, from the moment he botched Obama’s oath of office in 2009, the relationship between the Court and the White House has been fraught.
This is essential history that unravels the forces that have shaped the Roberts Court over the last eight years. The nation is preparing to vote for its next president, and it bears remembering that the future of the Supreme Court will also be on the ballot.
An ebook short.
The bestselling and prizewinning author of The Nine and American Heiress tells the dramatic and gripping insider’s story of the momentous ideological war fought between the Obama White House and the Supreme Court.
President Obama and Chief Justice Roberts could not be more different. Obama, a legal conservative grappling with the second amendment among other issues, believes in the close interpretation of the Constitution, incremental change, and pragmatism over ideology. But, for Roberts the law is all about winning. And, from the moment he botched Obama’s oath of office in 2009, the relationship between the Court and the White House has been fraught.
This is essential history that unravels the forces that have shaped the Roberts Court over the last eight years. The nation is preparing to vote for its next president, and it bears remembering that the future of the Supreme Court will also be on the ballot.
An ebook short.
- GenresNonfiction
ebook
Published October 4, 2016
16 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Jeffrey Toobin
24 books719 followersJeffrey Ross Toobin (J.D., Harvard Law School, 1986; B.A., American History and Literature, Harvard University) is a lawyer, blogger, and media legal correspondent for CNN and formerly The New Yorker magazine. He previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Brooklyn, New York, and later worked as a legal analyst for ABC News, where he received a 2001 Emmy Award for his coverage of the Elian Gonzales custody saga.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 11, 2016
This is a very abbreviated version of a full length book Jeff Toobin wrote a few years ago about Obama's relationship with the US Supreme Court. I suspect that I would find the full length version really interesting, but this version suffers from odd editing. The bits and pieces don't hold together very well thematically -- a dab of the botched oath administered by Robertson, a smidgen of Obama's experience at Harvard Law School and a pinch of his early legal and political careers. Despite my frustration, what shines through is Obama's unusual intelligence. This short ebook whet my appetite, but it didn't really satisfy me. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.
September 12, 2023
It wasn't bad but not my favorite. This is written by Jeffrey Toobin and is about both Obama and Supreme Court Justice John Roberts.
I perhaps expected something different. I thought it would be about the PROCESS of choosing a nominee, perhaps real life examples, that type of thing.
This was more about Roberts and Obama's lives, in school, what they did after and also about the presidential oath of office. Good stuff but stuff I mostly knew about. I was seeking something more psychological about the PROCESS of nominations, interactions, etc.
Toobin is a good writer and the material is definetly interesting, just not at all what I expected.
I've read so much on Obama and his back round so that part didn't interest me strongly just because I have read so much about him already.
Roberts is fascinating in his way. I also have a fascination with the Supreme Court process and really want to read more material on that. This wasn't bad and it is educational.
I perhaps expected something different. I thought it would be about the PROCESS of choosing a nominee, perhaps real life examples, that type of thing.
This was more about Roberts and Obama's lives, in school, what they did after and also about the presidential oath of office. Good stuff but stuff I mostly knew about. I was seeking something more psychological about the PROCESS of nominations, interactions, etc.
Toobin is a good writer and the material is definetly interesting, just not at all what I expected.
I've read so much on Obama and his back round so that part didn't interest me strongly just because I have read so much about him already.
Roberts is fascinating in his way. I also have a fascination with the Supreme Court process and really want to read more material on that. This wasn't bad and it is educational.
October 18, 2016
I thought Jeffrey Toobin’s The Obama White House and the Supreme Court would be about any conflict between the President and the Supreme Court with the focus on the most controversial policy of the last eight years, Obamacare. Instead, most of this short is about Chief Justice Roberts’ botched Presidential Oath at the 2009 inauguration – what an uninteresting subject to write about!
All you need to know about this incident is that Obama redid the oath in private, in front of a selection of witnesses from the press, so as to avoid any potential challenge from nutbars that he somehow wasn’t the real president. But Toobin goes into excessive detail on the trivial bits of pettiness that was the fallout from Roberts screwing up the oath and none of it is worth reading.
The rest of the short explains why Obama chose politics over a legal career after deciding the courts are an ineffective means of societal change. Also, Obama and Roberts are both different people with different points of view. W…o…w…
It’s well-written and provides about as much information as anyone could possibly want about the botched oath but, like a lot of American nonfiction, Jeffrey Toobin takes a helluva long time to say very little!
All you need to know about this incident is that Obama redid the oath in private, in front of a selection of witnesses from the press, so as to avoid any potential challenge from nutbars that he somehow wasn’t the real president. But Toobin goes into excessive detail on the trivial bits of pettiness that was the fallout from Roberts screwing up the oath and none of it is worth reading.
The rest of the short explains why Obama chose politics over a legal career after deciding the courts are an ineffective means of societal change. Also, Obama and Roberts are both different people with different points of view. W…o…w…
It’s well-written and provides about as much information as anyone could possibly want about the botched oath but, like a lot of American nonfiction, Jeffrey Toobin takes a helluva long time to say very little!
December 13, 2018
I decided to read this after reading Toobin's previous book, The Nine, regarding the Supreme court in many of the years before Obama's presidency. This book was written in a similar style. The first half or so of the book had a lot of overlapping stories with The Nine, and I was hoping for more specific stories about President Obama, but still enjoyed this a lot. I can still remember exactly where I was when the news broke that the Supreme Court upheld the ACA, and hearing the behind the scenes story of how they got there was the highlight of the book for me.
September 30, 2016
This "Vintage Short" is a selection from The Oath: The Obama White House and The Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin. I have several of Toobin's books on my shelf, but haven't quite gotten around to them yet.
I really, really need to.
This short begins with the kerfuffle over Obama's oath of office at his first swearing in. Do you remember that? I do, and it was entertaining to read about how freaked out the brand new staffers were over whether or not Obama was actually President or not after having not actually completed the oath correctly. The Constitution is weirdly specific about the oath that must be taken by the most powerful member of the executive branch, so if you're going to mess something up you probably shouldn't let it be that.
After that Toobin goes on to briefly describe the heart of all Constitutional debates: traditionalism (ie, the only rights we have are what the founders/future lawmakers explicitly wrote in there) vs living constitution (society changes and confers new rights onto the people based on basic rights already given). Then we enter into a long and, frankly, wandering bit about how Obama has felt about the debate.
Hint: He's a traditionalist.
Didn't know that did you?
Overall this was an interesting little short, and definitely makes me look at my shelf longingly (specifically at you The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court). It was a quick read, maybe thirty minutes, that was well written on a very relevant topic to today.
Review also published on my blog.
Copy courtesy of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group/Vintage, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I really, really need to.
This short begins with the kerfuffle over Obama's oath of office at his first swearing in. Do you remember that? I do, and it was entertaining to read about how freaked out the brand new staffers were over whether or not Obama was actually President or not after having not actually completed the oath correctly. The Constitution is weirdly specific about the oath that must be taken by the most powerful member of the executive branch, so if you're going to mess something up you probably shouldn't let it be that.
After that Toobin goes on to briefly describe the heart of all Constitutional debates: traditionalism (ie, the only rights we have are what the founders/future lawmakers explicitly wrote in there) vs living constitution (society changes and confers new rights onto the people based on basic rights already given). Then we enter into a long and, frankly, wandering bit about how Obama has felt about the debate.
Hint: He's a traditionalist.
Didn't know that did you?
Overall this was an interesting little short, and definitely makes me look at my shelf longingly (specifically at you The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court). It was a quick read, maybe thirty minutes, that was well written on a very relevant topic to today.
Review also published on my blog.
Copy courtesy of Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group/Vintage, via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews