Biography

Jeffrey Toobin (b. May 21, 1960 in New York City) is a senior analyst for CNN Worldwide. Based in the network's New York bureau, Toobin joined CNN in April 2002. He is also a staff writer at The New Yorker and has been covering legal affairs for the magazine since 1993.

Toobin joined CNN from ABC News, where, during his six-year tenure as a legal analyst, he provided legal analysis on the nation’s most provocative and high profile cases, including the O.J. Simpson civil trial and the Kenneth Starr investigation of the Clinton White House. Toobin received a 2001 Emmy Award for his coverage of the Elian Gonzales custody saga.

Previously, Toobin served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Brooklyn. He also served as an associate counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh, an experience that provided the basis for his first book, Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer's First Case—United States v. Oliver North.

Toobin has written several critically acclaimed, best-selling books including A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal that Nearly Brought Down a President, The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, and Too Close to Call: The 36-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election. His most recent book, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, spent more than four months on the New York Times best-seller list and earned the 2008 J. Anthony Lukas Prize for Nonfiction from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.

Toobin earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard College and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Toobin currently lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

. Discussion Questions:

1. Have -- as Toobin argues -- the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor and the subsequent appointments of John Roberts and Samuel Alito effectively established a "conservative majority" on the court?
    
2. How predictable are the judicial philosophies -- and practices -- of Supreme Court justices (past and present)? "Are the unpredictable personal dynamics among the justices more important than the agenda they brought with them?"
    
3. How will the election of Barack Obama potentially influence the court?
4. What is the "Constitution in Exile?" How does it relate to the court's history...and its future?
5. What is the function of the judiciary in the US government? How did John Marshall in Marbury v. Madison (1803) shape the court's relationship with the legislative and executive branches?
6. What role does politics play in judicial appointments?
7. How does O'Connor's pragmatism differ from Scalia's originalist/constructionist perspective? How would each defend her/his position? How would each rebuke the other's?
8. Toobin quotes Rehnquist (on page 237): "Don't worry about the analysis and principles in the case. Just make sure that the result is a good one this time around - because those principles you announce will be ignored in the next case." Why did Rehnquist say that?
    
9. How much weight should the court give to precedent (stare decisis)?
10. What, if any, role should international law play in Supreme Court decisions?

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