Chapters 9-10, The Unrequited Bipartisanship of Barack Obama, Wise Latina Summary and Analysis

Chapter 9 opens with Roberts inviting Obama and Vice President Biden to tour the Supreme Court's offices. The three men get along, despite the fact that both Obama and Biden had voted against Roberts's confirmation. In the coming weeks, however, Obama would lead the charge to overrule Alito's 2007 decision in the Lilly Ledbetter case, and he won the vote by large margins.

Toobin emphasizes that Obama took office facing more challenges than any president since FDR. He needed as many political friends as he could get to pass his legislative agenda and so took a low-temperature approach to his Supreme Court nominees. Obama's first nominee, David Hamilton, was dead on arrival. But Justice David Souter was about to step down and he had to...