Five Chiefs: A Supreme Court Memoir

In this engaging memoir and history of the U.S. Supreme Court, Stevens%E2%80%94who at his retirement in June 2010 became the third-longest serving justice in American history%E2%80%94offers a window into the practical workings of the constitutional system and its division of powers. His portrayals of Chief Justices Fred Vinson, Earl Warren, Warren Burger, William Rehnquist, and John Roberts provide a framework for his discussion of key issues taken up by the court since Nixon's resignation: the powers of the presidency, integration, civil rights, the meaning of the word "liberty" in the 14th Amendment, gun control, and the death penalty. Stevens shows that each new addition to the court transforms it by impacting the way in which the body as a whole works. Part of the pleasure of Stevens's writing is the way in which he relates the broader dialogue of the development of law to the individuals whose deliberations and discussions have shaped it. He explains how the court's deliberative process gives content to the notion of justice, which is never defined in the constitution, but is a kind of permanent work in progress. (Oct.)