Law: Keyholing the Supreme Court

A new book tells tales out of chambers

Alone among public institutions, the U.S. Supreme Court has remained an Olympian myth: nine sages in black robes, unelected, unreviewable, pronouncing the last word on the law. Throughout its 190-year existence, the court's decision-making process has enjoyed a special immunity from public scrutiny. Even during the '70s, in the post-Watergate era of full disclosure, its white marble temple stood as a sanctuary, its inner workings Washington's last well-kept secret.

To Watergate Investigative Reporter Bob Woodward, that made the nation's highest tribunal a "sitting target." Together with...