Closed Chambers (original) (raw)

Closed Chambers: The Rise, Fall, and Future of the Modern Supreme Court is a 1998 book by Edward Lazarus, who served as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun during the October Term 1988. Lazarus combines his reflections as a clerk with a substantial body of research to describe the collapse in comity between Justices – and particularly clerks – at the Supreme Court. The book is noted both for its extraordinary inside access to internal Supreme Court deliberation and its arguably balanced account of the controversy surrounding many high-profile Supreme Court decisions on the death penalty, civil rights, and abortion.