First: Sandra Day O'Connor
by Evan Thomas
It's wonderfully well-written, and happily entertaining. But the author left out a whole slice of the pie! She writes about what happened, when, politics and old-boy cronyism of the time, feminism, the ERA, people Justice O'Connor knew and influenced and loathed, but--
What about her big thoughts?
I'm halfway through the book and she's just been nominated for Supreme Court Justice. I know a lot about her opinions on women's rights, but very little on all the other big issues facing or soon to be facing our nation. How did she feel about affirmative action? About property rights, abortion, mandatory sentences for drug offenses, capital punishment? I have no idea!
So, sadly, I think the author did the subject a great disservice by not trying to find out what issues were deep on Justice O'Connor's mind and heart. While reading, I felt like I knew Ms. O'Connor socially, but not intellectually.
By the way, every single time the author mentioned Roe vs Wade, she had to explain it--"The 1973 decision granting women the right to an abortion". The editor should have caught that.
Ok, I'm later on in the book and I do know more about her big actions...but still not as much as I'd like. For every page the biographer spends on cases, she spends five on personal interactions--other justices, politicians, clerks, and so on. It's a very "gossipy" biography and as such, I'm not liking it.
Toward the end, getting more into cases. Good. I'm liking it much, much better.
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