• This Month’s Issue: Judicial Review
• Novel Twist on Law & Politics
  . . . and the Supreme Court, Too!
• Coming: Bush v. Gore Books
• Forthcoming

We are pleased to bring you yet another issue of "Jurists on JURIST." Starting in 1998, we began inviting judges – federal and state, appellate and trial – to author original reviews for Books-on-Law. Our inaugural issue featured reviews by eight federal and state judges. In our January 1999 issue, five other judges – foreign and federal, appellate and trial – reviewed a variety of law-related books. In this issue, as well as in the next, we offer yet more reviews by members of the bench. Consistent with our eclectic approach to things, we have organized this issue and the next according to geography – all of the reviewers are sitting judges (federal and state) in Washington State. In future years, we hope to do likewise with other states. We also plan to host an entire issue of reviews by women jurists. So stay with us  . . .  more Jurists on JURIST are yet to come!

Judge M. Margaret McKeown (9^th Circuit Court of Appeals) opens this month's issue with her review of a book on the federal appointments process. Chief Justice Gerry L. Alexander (Washington Supreme Court) then reflects on a study of the retirements and deaths of U.S. Supreme Court Justices. Justice Faith Ireland (Washington Supreme Court) considers a compilation of the greatest closing arguments in American trial history. A critique by Justice Philip A. Talmadge (Washington Supreme Court) of a work on American constitutional "revolutions" is followed by a reply from the author. Next, Judge Elaine Houghton (Washington State Court of Appeals, Division II) pulls no punches in her evaluation of a book on jury deliberations. Winding up this first issue of "Washington Jurists on JURIST," Judge William Downing (King County Superior Court) takes us down memory lane with his review of a primer on first year law studies.

Disagree with a review? Talk back to the judges. We invite your input  . . .  no fear of any contempt citations here.

Looking for a new law-related book? Check the selection listed in our Book Notices.

The events of the last few months seem beyond belief. No credible novelist could garner our respect if he or she ever spun such whimsical yarns. But reality sometimes trumps fiction, especially when it is the reality of politics. Hence, we live, as it were, in novel times. Given that, the timing is perfect for the release Richard North Patterson's latest best-selling novel, Protect and Defend (Knopf, 2000) (ISBN: 0679450440).

If you liked the virtual reality of the Bush-Gore contest, you'll love Protect and Defend. The novel opens with an account of an amazingly close presidential race. No victor on election night. The nation must wait. Sound familiar? There's more, even a character named Chad! But why focus on the parallels with the past when Protect and Defend may portend the future?

The plot thickens when Patterson (a lawyer, Case Western Reserve School of Law graduate, and author of several courtroom dramas and crime novels) spins his readers through the realities of novel possibilities – passage of the Protection of Life Act, a young woman's complicated decision to have an abortion, the nomination of a pro-choice Chief Justice and the chaos of her senate confirmation hearing . . . plus much more. God help the nation if any of this is, indeed, a harbinger of things to come.

If you haven't had your fill of Bush v. Gore, books detailing and analyzing this historic debacle in politics & law are on the way. According to the Washington Post, as early as mid-December of last year Jeff Greenfield (CNN) had signed a contract with Penguin Putman to write Oh Waiter, One Order of Crow! Inside the Strangest Presidential Election Finish in American History. Not to be left out, Jeffrey Toobin (legal analyst, reporter, lawyer, and writer for the New Yorker) has signed with Random House to publish his account and interpretation of the most bizarre presidential election in American history. David Von Drehle and Ellen Nakashima (Washington Post), Dana Milbank (Washington Post), Jake Tapper (Salon.com), and Roger Simon (U.S. News & World Report) have also signed publishing contracts to comment on the historic melee. No doubt, coffee table books, replete with compromising photographs of all the legions of lawyers, will also find their way to press. And in time the university presses will publish their own scholarly tracts on the legal aspects of the fracas – everything from how Bush v. Gore affected judicial review, the justiciability doctrines, and, of course, the law of due process and equal protection. Publishing contracts for commentaries on more esoteric topics – e.g., what this means for the law of Article II, §1, cl. 2 and 3 U.S.C. § 5 – have, to the best of our knowledge, yet to be signed.

The February issue will continue "Washington Jurists on JURIST" with the following:

• Robert S. Lasnik (U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington), reviewing Michael Kent Curtis, Free Speech, "The People's Darling Privilege" (Duke University Press, 2000)
• Barbara Jacobs Rothstein (U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington), reviewing Edward A. Purcell, Jr., Brandeis and the Progressive Constitution: Erie, the Judicial Power, and the Politics of the Federal Courts in Twentieth-Century America (Yale University Press, 2000)
• Richard B. Sanders (Washington Supreme Court), reviewing Tinsley E. Yarbrough, The Rehnquist Court and the Constitution (Oxford University Press, 2000)
• Susan R. Agid (Washington State Court of Appeals, Division I), reviewing Katy J. Harriger, The Special Prosecutor in American Politics (University Press of Kansas, 2^nd edition, 2000)
• Mary Kay Becker (Washington State Court of Appeals, Division I), reviewing Ruti G. Teitel, Transitional Justice (Oxford University Press, 2000)
• Karen G. Seinfeld (Washington State Court of Appeals, Division II), reviewing Milner S. Ball, Called By Stories: Biblical Sagas and Their Challenge for Law (Duke University Press, 2000)

Ronald K.L. Collins & David M. Skover, Editors, Books-on-Law
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JURIST: Books-on-Law™ is edited by Ronald K.L. Collins and David M. Skover of the Seattle University School of Law.

Board of Editorial Consultants: Raj Bhala, George Washington University Law School; Miriam Galston, George Washington University Law School; Kermit Hall, Utah State University; Yale Kamisar, University of Michigan Law School; Lisa G. Lerman, Catholic University of America School of Law; Christine Littleton, University of California at Los Angeles Law School; David M. O’Brien, University of Virginia Department of Government and Foreign Affairs; Judith Resnik, Yale Law School; Edwin L. Rubin, University of Pennsylvania Law School; Steven H. Shriffrin, Cornell Law School; Nadine Strossen, New York Law School; David B. Wilkins, Harvard Law School.

Administrative Assistant for Books-on-Law: Ms. Nancy Ammons
Technical Assistant for Books-on-Law: Steven Pacillio, Esq.

© Ronald K.L. Collins and David Skover, 2001.