Books

Five Chiefs

A Supreme Court Memoir
By Justice John Paul Stevens (Trade Paperback, 2012)
When he resigned in June 2010, Justice John Paul Stevens was the third-longest-serving Supreme Court justice in American history. As a lawyer and on the court, he worked with five chief justices: as a law clerk during Fred Vinson's tenure, a practicing lawyer when Earl Warren was chief, a circuit judge and junior justice during Warren Burger's term, a contemporary colleague of William Rehnquist, and a colleague of current Chief Justice John Roberts. FIVE CHIEFS is his personal account of the workings of the court from his personal experiences with these men, and the controversial cases they deliberated over, from freedom of speech and affirmative action to capital punishment and sovereign immunity.

Written with humility and grace, and packed with interesting anecdotes, FIVE CHIEFS is an unprecedented and historically significant look at the highest court in the United States.
Full Description
Buy This Book
  • Little, Brown and Company

    • Format: Trade Paperback

    • Price: $15.99 US/$17.50 CAN

    • ISBN-13: 9780316199797

    • On Sale Date: 10/02/2012

    • Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

    Full Details

    Formats Available: Hardcover Book, Trade Paperback, Electronic Book, Audiobook, Audiobook

  • Newsletter

    Don't miss updates about our authors, including book tour info and new book releases.

    Sign Up

  • Audiobook Excerpt

When he resigned in June 2010, Justice John Paul Stevens was the third-longest-serving Supreme Court justice in American history. As a lawyer and on the court, he worked with five chief justices: as a law clerk during Fred Vinson's tenure, a practicing lawyer when Earl Warren was chief, a circuit judge and junior justice during Warren Burger's term, a contemporary colleague of William Rehnquist, and a colleague of current Chief Justice John Roberts. FIVE CHIEFS is his personal account of the workings of the court from his personal experiences with these men, and the controversial cases they deliberated over, from freedom of speech and affirmative action to capital punishment and sovereign immunity.

Written with humility and grace, and packed with interesting anecdotes, FIVE CHIEFS is an unprecedented and historically significant look at the highest court in the United States.

John Paul Stevens served as a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1970-1975. President Ford nominated him as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, and he took his seat December 19, 1975. Justice Stevens retired from the Supreme Court on June 29, 2010.

  •  "Five Chiefs is a 248-page bow-tie; like its dignified author, and his famous sartorial flourish, an unpretentious but important addition to American history...At its core, the book is not just another memoir from yet another judge. It marks instead the end of an era on the Supreme Court and in the broader swath of American law and politics...Stevens' focused eye gives way to a hundred or so smaller points, some densely legal, some historical, some even funny...Five Chiefs is the right book at the right time. It's a brief and largely defanged reminder of some of what we have lost in public life with the demise of the "moderate Republican" on Capitol Hill and the "practical conservative" on the federal bench...A fine new book." (The Atlantic).

Formats

Product Details

Five Chiefs
  • Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
  • Price: $15.99 US/$17.50 CAN
  • Pages: 304
  • Physical Dimensions: 5-1/2" x 8-1/4"
  • ISBN-13: 9780316199797
  • On Sale Date: 10/02/2012
Five Chiefs
© 2013 Hachette Book Group