The Making of a Justice

June 3, 2019
In this dense autobiography focused, except for a few brief opening chapters, on professional matters, former Supreme Court Justice Stevens revisits his 35-year tenure on the court, 1975–2010. This period saw significant shifts in the Court’s constitutional jurisprudence on gender and race discrimination, LGBTQ issues, the death penalty, campaign finance, the regulation of firearms, and affirmative action. While Stevens eschews a gossipy take on Court personalities, he is more than happy to take the gloves off when criticizing the opinions of other justices—he calls a 1985 William Rehnquist decision, on the police brutality case Oklahoma City v. Tuttle, “one of the worst opinions” decided during his term on the court—and instances in which he believes the Court has taken radically wrong turns, among them the rulings that hold the Second Amendment essentially prohibits gun regulation; the Court’s bar on state regulation of campaign finance; Bush v. Gore, which stopped the Florida vote recount in the 2000 presidential election; and a decision holding that there is no compelling state interest in maintaining racial diversity in public schools. Stevens explicates a dizzying number of decisions and often delves deeply into recondite areas of constitutional law. Dedicated court followers will find this rewarding, but readers without a legal background, and even some who with, will find this difficult to navigate.

As might be expected, the introduction delivered by the late Justice John Paul Stevens reveals some frailty, but hearing the voice of this judicial giant still gives a sense of the man. Taking over for the bulk of the audiobook, narrator Robert Petkoff does an outstanding job of making voluminous arcane legal considerations and machinations reasonably understandable and appealing. His professional narration experience is evident as he conveys energy, clarity, and engagement with the life of the justice, who before his retirement from the Supreme Court in 2010 wrote more than a thousand opinions. While Stevens's privileged childhood, law degree studies at Northwestern, and personal/career development, as recounted in the earlier chapters, are fascinating, a great deal of the later chapters may appeal primarily to those with a distinct interest in American jurisprudence. Regardless, the audiobook is well narrated. W.A.G. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine