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((Short description|1979 book by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong))
((more citations needed|date=August 2021))
((Infobox book
| italic title   = <!--(see above)-->
| name           = The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court
| image          = Woodward brethren.jpg
| alt            = 
| caption        = First edition
| author         = [[Bob Woodward]] and [[Scott Armstrong (journalist)|Scott Armstrong]]
| audio_read_by  = 
| title_orig     = 
| orig_lang_code = 
| title_working  = 
| translator     = 
| illustrator    = 
| cover_artist   = 
| country        = United States
| language       = English
| series         = 
| release_number = 
| subject        = [[Supreme Court of the United States]]
| publisher      = [[Simon & Schuster]]
| pub_date       = 1979
| media_type     = 
| pages          = 467
| awards         = 
| isbn           = 978-0-671-24110-0
| oclc           = 61201839
| dewey          = 
| congress       = 
| preceded_by    = 
| followed_by    = 
| native_wikisource = 
| wikisource     = 
))
'''''The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court''''' is a 1979 book by [[Bob Woodward]] and [[Scott Armstrong (journalist)|Scott Armstrong]]. It gives a "behind-the-scenes" account of the [[United States Supreme Court]] during [[Warren E. Burger|Warren Burger]]'s early years as [[Chief Justice of the United States]]. The book covers the years from the 1969 term through the 1975 term. Using Woodward's trademark writing technique involving "[[off the record (journalism)|off-the-record]]" sources, the book provides an account of the deliberations leading to some of the court's more controversial decisions from the 1970s. Among the cases with substantial treatment in the book was the decision in ''[[United States v. Nixon]]'' (1974), where the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that [[President of the United States|President]] [[Richard Nixon]] was legally obligated to turn over the [[Watergate tapes]]. In 1985, upon the death of [[Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court|Associate Justice]] [[Potter Stewart]], Woodward disclosed that Stewart had been the primary source for ''The Brethren.''<ref>[http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-27320191_ITM Garrow, David J. ''The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court''.  Publication: Constitutional Commentary, June 22, 2001 at Access my Library.]</ref>

The book begins with the exit of [[Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court|Chief Justice]] [[Earl Warren]] from the [[U.S. Supreme Court]] after the [[U.S. Senate]] refused to allow [[President of the United States|President]] [[Lyndon Johnson]] to elevate sitting Associate Justice [[Abe Fortas]] to Chief Justice in 1968. [[Richard Nixon]], the newly inaugurated [[president of the United States]], even considers elevating the moderate Justice Potter Stewart, considered a Justice even similar to the leading liberals Hugo Black and Earl Warren, but ends up selecting judge Warren Burger for the court and he is subsequently confirmed.  With a more conservative Chief Justice on the bench, Republicans wish to undo many of the liberal decisions that were brought down under the [[Warren Court]]. The current divisions in the court place Chief Justice Burger to the right of nearly all existing justices. [[John Marshall Harlan II]] comprised the more conservative side of the court, often joined by [[Byron White]], while Justices [[William O. Douglas|William Douglas]], [[William J. Brennan Jr.|William Brennan]] and [[Thurgood Marshall]] took up the left. Justice Potter Stewart (the narrator) and [[Hugo Black]] remained  at the Court's ideological center.

Toward the beginning of the book, new Chief Justice [[Warren E. Burger|Warren Burger]] is nominated by President Nixon (May 1969) and is confirmed by the U.S. Senate (June 1969).  And during the course of the book (ending with the Oct. 1975 - June 1976 term), six additional Justices are nominated with four of them being confirmed by the Senate.

The book begins following Fortas' May 1969 resignation, which forces the court to hear cases for most of the 1969-70 term with eight justices. Fortas' eventual successor, [[Harry Blackmun]] - who later became the author of the famous ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' decision which legalized abortion - was not confirmed until late April 1970. He was Nixon's third nominee for the seat following Senate rejections of [[Clement Haynsworth]] and [[G. Harrold Carswell]]. 

Justices Hugo Black and John Harlan both leave the court in September 1971 (both died before the end of the year) and are replaced by [[Lewis F. Powell Jr.]] and [[William Rehnquist]]. Douglas, the most powerful liberal on the bench, suffers a stroke on New Year's Eve 1974 and is forced to retire at the end of the book, furthering the decline of the liberal control of the bench, with [[John Paul Stevens]] (who later became the leader of the court's liberal bloc) appointed as his successor. Douglas was especially dismayed President [[Gerald Ford]] appointed his successor, since Ford led an impeachment inquiry into Douglas as [[Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives|House Minority Leader]] in 1970. 

The book's sources are highly critical of Burger as Chief Justice, especially in comparison to his renowned predecessor, Warren (whose death in July 1974 is mentioned in the book). Burger is described by other Justices as pompous, devious, and intellectually mediocre. The book is also critical at various points of Douglas, who is portrayed as having gone from one of America's greatest jurists to a "nasty, petulant, prodigal child" who was overly political, and is also occasionally critical of Marshall, another liberal stalwart, for his alleged intellectual laziness and apathy.

The book does frequently lend out praise to other Justices though. Stewart, who was one of the primary sources for the book, is portrayed in a positive light, as is Brennan, the acknowledged leader of the liberal bloc of justices, both for his intelligence as well as his amiable, friendly personality. The book also issued some particular praise for Justices Harlan, Powell, and Rehnquist.

The accuracy of the book's portrayal of Marshall has been questioned, and it has been characterized by some as racially charged.<ref>((cite journal |last1=Tushnet |first1=Mark |title=Thurgood Marshall and the Brethren |journal=Georgetown Law Review |issue=80 |pages=2109–2131 |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?public=true&handle=hein.journals/glj80&div=66&start_page=2109&collection=journals&set_as_cursor=0&men_tab=srchresults |access-date=17 September 2022))</ref><ref>((cite book |last1=Robin |first1=Corey |title=The Enigma of Clarence Thomas |publisher=Metropolitan Books |isbn=9781627793834 |page=11 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ICRPDwAAQBAJ |access-date=14 September 2022))</ref> The accuracy of the book was questioned by some of the Justices, particularly Brennan, who privately called it a "goddamn shit sheet."<ref>((cite book |last1=Stern |first1=Seth|last2=Wermiel |first2=Stephen |title=Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion |publisher=University Press of Kansas |isbn=9780700619122 |page=469 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AZCmDBTMPXYC |access-date=28 August 2022))</ref>

==Specific Criticism==

In the 1972 baseball anti-trust case [[Flood v. Kuhn|''Flood'' v. ''Kuhn'']], Justice [[Harry Blackmun]] circulated a first draft listing more than 70 baseball greats to illustrate the role of baseball in American society.  Armstrong and Woodward claim he included no African-American greats until prodded to do so by Justice [[Thurgood Marshall]] (page 191 of ''The Brethren'').<ref name="baseball article by Ross Davies"/>

However, when the Court papers of Justice [[William O. Douglas]] were opened to the public in 1986, the names of the African-American players [[Jackie Robinson]], [[Roy Campanella]], and [[Satchel Page]] were included in Justice Blackmun’s 1st draft.  This was also shown when Justice [[Thurgood Marshall|Marshall’s]] and Justice [[William J. Brennan Jr. |William Brennan Jr.’s]] papers were opened in the 1990s.  (A Justice’s papers are typically made public 10 years after his or her retirement.)<ref name="baseball article by Ross Davies">[https://sabr.org/journal/article/a-tall-tale-of-the-brethren/ “A Tall Tale of ‘The Brethren’”], Ross E. Davies, ''Baseball Research Journal'', Fall 2009. This article was originally published in the ''Journal of Supreme Court History 33'', no. 2 (July 2008): pages 186–99.</ref>

==References==
((reflist))

((Bob Woodward))

((DEFAULTSORT:Brethren, The))
[[Category:1979 non-fiction books]]
[[Category:Books by Bob Woodward]]
[[Category:History of the Supreme Court of the United States]]
[[Category:Books about United States legal history]]
[[Category:Collaborative non-fiction books]]

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