CLOSED CHAMBERS: The First Eyewitness Account of the Epic Struggles Inside the Supreme Court.(Review)(Brief Article)

Edward P. Lazarus. Times Books, $27.50 (576p) ISBN 0-8129-2402-9

This is a powerful, often shocking report on the inner workings of the Supreme Court, its decision-making process, biases and internal feuds. Building on his experience as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun in 1988-89, Lazarus (Black Hills/White Justice), a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, selectively focuses on judicial baffles from the Warren era to the present revolving around such issues as racial discrimination, the death penalty, abortion and the proper extent of the Court's power. A liberal who cheered when the Senate rejected judge Robert Bork's nomination to the Court in 1987, …