Sisters in Law

July 13, 2015
Author, lawyer, and pundit Hirshman (Victory: The Triumphant Gay Revolution) offers a dual biography of the first two women appointed to the SCOTUS: Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She explores the two justices’ very different personalities and how their experiences as pioneering women in the legal profession informed their approaches to constitutional law. Of particular interest are Hirshman’s descriptions of the respective paths O’Connor and Ginsburg took to reach the Supreme Court. O’Connor, an obscure Arizona appellate judge, mixed extraordinary social skills, fierce self-reliance, and Republican connections to secure her historic nomination. Ginsburg, “the Thurgood Marshall of the women’s movement,” parlayed her work on a number of pivotal cases regarding the constitutional rights of women into her coveted appointment. Hirshman illuminates how Ginsburg and O’Connor navigated the high-stakes internal politics of the Supreme Court, and she takes the unusual step of addressing the influence that Supreme Court law clerks can have on the Court’s decision making. She also spends quality time discussing the evolution of the constitutional theories that the justices apply when analyzing such flash-point issues as reproductive rights and workplace sexual harassment. Hirshman’s conversational style and deep analysis of several precedent-setting constitutional cases should appeal to both casual and professional readers.

August 1, 2015

In addition to its clever title, this book offers an illuminating analysis of the ascent by Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the U.S. Supreme Court. A lawyer and women's studies scholar, Hirshman (Victory; A Woman's Guide to Law School) excels in portraying the enormous obstacles encountered by women attempting to enter the legal field. O'Connor and Ginsburg both attended top-tier law schools and graduated at the top of their respective classes. Nonetheless, both struggled to obtain their first professional jobs. Still, the women persisted and succeeded, despite the prevailing male-oriented culture. The two could not have been more different: O'Connor grew up on a ranch in the West, Ginsburg hailed from Brooklyn; O'Connor was a prominent Republican, Ginsburg was a card-carrying Democrat and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney who fought to advance the Equal Rights Amendment; O'Connor was a politician, while Ginsburg was a tactician and legal scholar. Nevertheless, both made history in shaping the law as we know it today. VERDICT This superb book unpacks the remarkable achievements of the first two female Supreme Court justices, "sisters in law," indeed. Perfect for readers relishing Jeffrey Toobin's The Nine. [See Prepub Alert, 3/30/15.]--Lynne Maxwell, West Virginia Univ. Coll. of Law Lib., Morgantown

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