The Brethren Summary

Summary The Brethren is a non fiction book by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong that examines the actions and goings-on of the Supreme Court from 1969 to 1976. The book begins with the end of the “Warren era”, otherwise known as the retirement of Chief Justice Earl Warren. While the beginning focuses mainly on the tradition from the Warren Court to the Burger Court, there are several other important happenings, such as the retirement of Justice Abe Fortas. You see many transitions in the first one hundred pages; Warren to Burger, Lyndon B. Johnson to Richard Nixon, liberal court to conservative court, and a bit of Fortas to Blackmun. The most difficult was Warren Burger moving in as Chief Justice; he had expectations from the Nixon administration
This shows through the cases each individual choses to hear, the way thereat their fellow justices, how they utilize their clerks, and how they vote. We start off with Burgers desperate search for a landmark case, he is obsessed with having a unanimous decision to show that the court, and he as a leader, remained strong. Almost in a continuation of the Warren courts desegregation rulings, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education brought the landmark decision facing the topic of busing and integration versus desegregation. It was very difficult for the justices to come to a unanimous decision especially with Black acting as a unbudging liberal strict constructionist. Eventually, visually every justice conceded a part of their opinion and a unanimous decision was reached for pro-busing, a liberal decision. The press, however picked up on how split the court really was, stated that it seemed like “two sets of views, laid side by side”. A large part of their chapter is dedicated to deliberation on overturning or turning to a narrower interpretation of Miranda v. Arizona, the exclusionary rule, and Mapp v. Ohio. The fact that none of those attempts were successful was another win for a liberal court that Burger had not envisioned. In 1970 many people are upset with the war in Vietnam, and with their government. This leads to Cohen v California regarding free speech, Clay v U.S.
While Marshal brought the court into its power, and the Warren court fought for civil liberties, Burger established modern technology and brought to light the political nature of the highest court in the land. Warren Burger was selected by a scheming President Nixon who had hoped to appoint a Chief Justice to reverse the liberal change done by Warren; already Burger is in office for political reasons rather than merit and in the interest of the people. Once in office, instead of adjusting to court and the way of being a justice, Burger is deterred to make the court, the law, and the justices adjust to him. He remains stuck in his conniving political games, for example, changing the status quo and voting last to ensure he would be in the majority and assign who writes the opinions. Besides his obvious power complex, that exemplifies how Burger is willing to abandon his morals and beliefs for dominate and a favorable view in the