Harvard law professor Noah Feldman has written a new book entitled Scorpions: The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices. Here's a description of the book (which focuses on Robert Jackson, Hugo Black, William O. Douglas, and Felix Frankfurter) from the publisher's website:
A tiny, ebullient Jew who started as America’s
leading liberal and ended as its most famous judicial conservative. A
Klansman who became an absolutist advocate of free speech and civil
rights. A backcountry lawyer who started off trying cases about cows and
went on to conduct the most important international trial ever. A
self-invented, tall-tale Westerner who narrowly missed the presidency
but expanded individual freedom beyond what anyone before had dreamed.
Four
more different men could hardly be imagined. Yet they had certain
things in common. Each was a self-made man who came from humble
beginnings on the edge of poverty. Each had driving ambition and a will
to succeed. Each was, in his own way, a genius. They began as
close allies and friends of FDR, but the quest to shape a new
Constitution led them to competition and sometimes outright warfare.
SCORPIONS tells the story of these four great justices: their
relationship with Roosevelt, with each other, and with the turbulent
world of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. It also
serves as a history of the modern Constitution itself.
Professor Feldman discusses his book in this video. You'll find reviews here (Kirkus) and here (Publishers Weekly).
Scorpions is scheduled for publication in November.