judy's Reviews > Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices

I'm giving this 5 stars because the material is important--not because it offers a cohesive narrative. My mouth was open during most of it. Truly, I was constantly surprised. Scorpions is well named. The four Roosevelt-appointed justices upon whom it focuses (Frankfurter, Black, Douglas and Jackson)were often jealous, political, petty and vengeful. While I didn't find anyone I could admire, I will give each of them credit for having a carefully thought-out personal theory of the Constitution from which each tried to work. (Proving to me that no single theory will work.) Unfortunately, the theories were widely diverse. Much of the work done by these men took place after Roosevelt died. They served through Truman and, amazingly, were still alive and on the Court for Brown v. Board of Education. In that case, they struggled through their different theories to reach a unanimous decision. A daunting task since two of them didn't believe in judicial activism. They realized, however, that if there were to be an end to segregation, it had to come from the Court. Congress, any Congress, would never pass such legislation. Read this if you're willing to give it the time and attention it deserves. The theories are worth thinking about and range from what we currently consider very liberal to very conservative.