Sunday with The New Yorker

PHOTOGRAPH BY DREW ANGERER/GETTY The Supreme Court: On the Bench Reporting on the Supreme Court, particularly on the lives and work of the Justices themselves, has never been an easy piece of business. A time-honored culture of omertà often prevails at the Court, obscuring the work of an essential branch of government, an institution that has tremendous influence over American lives. But sometimes a writer gets close to the material, and is able to reveal the political and intellectual drama that has so much influence on our lives. Jeffrey Toobin, who has written two books about the Supreme Court, Margaret Talbot, Lauren Collins, and Nat Hentoff all approach the Court with rigor and an eye for the telling detail. They all approach the bench without fear. This is legal reporting at its highest level. —David Remnick PROFILES | MARCH 11, 2013 RUTH BADER GINSBURG’S DISSENT BY JEFFREY TOOBIN How the liberal litigator from Brooklyn has transformed the court. PROFILES | JANUARY 11, 2010 SONIA SOTOMAYOR’S DÉBUT BY LAUREN COLLINS Sotomayor believes in the perfectibility of systems. She has a gift for challenging authority without invoking its wrath. ANNALS OF LAW | MAY 25, 2009 JOHN ROBERTS: NO MORE MR. NICE GUY BY JEFFREY TOOBIN The Chief Justice’s record is that of a doctrinaire conservative. He has served the interests, and reflected the values, of the Republican Party. PROFILES | MARCH 28, 2005 ANTONIN SCALIA’S SUPREME CONFIDENCE BY MARGARET TALBOT Scalia’s style could be described as the jurisprudential equivalent of smashing a guitar onstage. ANNALS OF LAW | SEPTEMBER 12, 2005 THE EVOLUTION OF ANTHONY KENNEDY BY JEFFREY TOOBIN Kennedy wrote the two most important pro-gay-rights decisions in the Court’s history. One conservative has called him “the most dangerous man in America.” PROFILES | MARCH 12, 1990 WILLIAM BRENNAN (1906–1997): THE CONSTITUTIONALIST BY NAT HENTOFF The ostensibly conservative Justice’s opinions expanded “equal protection of the laws,” especially for racial minorities and women. For some, he is the most influential member of the Court in the twentieth century.