Out of Order: Stories from the History of the Supreme Court

A few years ago, when I worked at the Johns Hopkins SAIS campus, I had the opportunity to hear Sandra Day O'Connor speak. I remember that she spoke well and that she was interesting, but I don't actually remember any of the actual content of her speech - not even the general topic. Out of Order, which was written by Justice O'Connor, strikes me in the same way. Don't get me wrong: I have long admired Sandra Day O'Connor and I was eager to read this book. So. As one should expect from a former Supreme Court justice, Out of Order is well-written, but in the same way that a legal brief or (tiresome) graduate thesis might be. It is also entirely forgettable. Essentially, the organization is there, there are a few glimmering bits that could stand to be fleshed out a bit more, and the main ideas are hammered home until the reader can repeat them by heart.

So what are the main ideas? In the early years, it was terrible to be a Supreme Court justice. You had to ride circuit, sometimes ten thousand miles or more in a year, and often didn't have a proper bed to sleep in, to say nothing of a courtroom to command. It was better to serve on a state court than the highest court, and more than one man left to do so. Also, while most of our justices have been good and honorable men (O'Connor was the first woman appointed to the Court), a few were real cads. Despite the title, though, this isn't really a book about men behaving badly. At only 166 pages, disappointingly brief, it's hardly a book about much.

O'Connor does offer a few glimpses of the Court's more colorful characters - all long, long dead, of course. These were the glimmering bits that left me wishing for more, for the two or three pages that she devoted to these personalities, whom she essentially deemed the most intriguing men to serve on the Court in 200 years - for better or for worse - made me think that either the others have all been dry as chalk or, frankly, that she shouldn't have even bothered to travel this path. There's always the chance that it's both. In the end, I felt rather O'Connor could have done better. As I read this, I was reminded of a dissertation that no one wanted to write, but that needed to be written to quiet a badgering adviser. There is little to read here and less joy.