9 Scorpions - Hardcover

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes called his contentious brethren "nine scorpions in a bottle," but I discovered that the real stingers belong to the law clerks. These bright young lawyers advise the Justices which cases to hear, then write the first drafts of their opinions. What if an outsider "owned" a law clerk? Could a brilliant and seductive female clerk steal a Justice's vote along with his heart? Could a case be fixed? And what should the Court do when adherence to the law will result in injustice?

To answer those questions, I spent months researching the Court, interviewing former clerks, watching oral arguments, even shooting buckets on the basketball court! one floor above the courtroom, truly the "highest court" in the land. I immersed myself in the history of the marble palace, a building that seems more like a holy cathedral than a courthouse. The result in "9 Scorpions." It is a tale of love and loss, passion and villainy, sin and forgiveness. The story exposes the conflicts between a law clerk's tainted past and her new ideals, between a judge's notions of rigid law and a more compassionate justice. I hope the book is as enjoyable to read as it was to write.