Toobin, Jeffrey 1960- (Jeffrey Ross Toobin)

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Toobin, Jeffrey 1960- (Jeffrey Ross Toobin)

PERSONAL:

Born May 21, 1960, in New York, NY, son of Jerome (a television producer) and Marlene (a television journalist) Toobin; married Amy Bennett McIntosh (head of Bell Atlantic Internet division), May 31, 1986; children: Ellen Frances, Adam Jerome. Education: Harvard University, B.A., 1982, J.D., 1986.

ADDRESSES:

Office—New Yorker, 20 W. 43rd St., New York, NY 10036-7400.

CAREER:

Honorable J. Edward Lumbard, New York, NY, law clerk, 1986-87; called to the Bar of New York State, 1987; Independent Counsel Lawrence Walsh, Washington, DC, associate counsel, 1987-89; East District New York, Brooklyn, NY, U.S. attorney, 1990-93; New Yorker, New York, NY, staff writer, 1993—. ABC News, New York, NY, legal analyst, 1996-2002; CNN-TV, New York, NY, legal analyst, 2002—.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Emmy Award, 2000, for coverage of the Elian Gonzales custody saga.

WRITINGS:

Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer's First Case: United States v. Oliver North, Viking (New York, NY), 1991.

The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, Random House (New York, NY), 1996.

A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought down a President, Random House (New York, NY), 1999.

Too Close to Call: The Thirty-six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election, Random House (New York, NY), 2001.

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor of articles to publications, including New Republic.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jeffrey Toobin, who serves as a legal analyst for CNN, has covered legal matters for the New Yorker since 1993. In an article written by Michael Coffey for Publishers Weekly, Toobin claims that he had no intentions of becoming a writer. Instead, he wanted to run for a political office or be a trial lawyer. "I was a very political kid, though I always worked on the school paper, and at Harvard, where I met my wife working on the Harvard Crimson," Toobin told Coffey. After earning his bachelor's degree, Toobin did work for two politicians before returning to Harvard to obtain his law degree. Upon passing the New York Bar, Toobin assisted attorney Lawrence E. Walsh in the infamous Oliver North Iran-Contra case on Capitol Hill, an experience that Toobin writes about in his first book, Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer's First Case: United States v. Oliver North.

Toobin's experience in this case, plus the fact that Walsh tried to block the publication of his book, was a turning point in Toobin's life. He decided that he did not like politics or law, preferring instead to write. "It was almost like a light bulb going off, and I had to confront what mattered to me most," Toobin stated in the Coffey article. Toobin had, at first, wanted to have a career that differed from the careers of his parents, who were both involved with writing and television. However, after working on the Oliver North case, he told himself, "There's nothing wrong with doing what your parents did."

So Toobin tried his hand at freelance writing, publishing his stories in the New Republic at first, then sending his clips, upon the suggestion of a friend, to the New Yorker, where he was eventually given a permanent position.

Opening Arguments was based on Toobin's legal involvement with the U.S. foreign-policy scandal known as the Iran-Contra affair, which became publicly known in November 1986. At that time, President Ronald Reagan confirmed congressional suspicions that the United States had secretly sold arms to Iran, a deal that eventually led to the release of terrorist-held U.S. hostages in the Middle East. It was later discovered that the profits from these weapon deals were used to help finance Nicaraguan rebels (referred to as "Contras"). Both of these acts were deemed illegal by Congress, and when the affairs were uncovered, Congress appointed Walsh as independent special prosecutor to investigate.

Toobin was an assistant to Walsh and worked in the Office of Independent Counsel in Washington, DC, during the trials. The main focus of the inquest was Lt. Colonel Oliver North, a marine who was a staff member of the National Security Council. "North's mission in life," wrote Scott Turow in a review of Toobin's book for the Los Angeles Times, was to circumvent the laws that forbade Reagan's administration from proceeding with these clandestine dealings.

Toobin was criticized for writing this book. Many people felt that he revealed too many secrets, and Walsh even threatened Toobin with legal jeopardy. In reaction to this event, Toobin and his publisher filed a preemptive lawsuit, and the judge who heard the case ruled in Toobin's favor. Turow, in his review of the book, did not try to answer the question of whether Toobin was right to publish his account. "What can be said with conviction," Turow wrote, "is that this book is absorbing and a great pleasure to read." Turow continued: "Toobin's description of the North trial itself is splendid reportage, alert to the battle tactics of each side, the subtle dynamic that is always at work among the myriad players … and the always intriguing way that personality manages to emerge on the witness stand."

Toobin's next book was also a bit controversial, and the subject matter overwhelmingly captured the attention of the American public. The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson follows the details of the Simpson murder trial and uses it to demonstrate how sometimes the criminal justice system does not work. The premise of Toobin's book is that this trial represented a miscarriage of justice. Toobin, as a reporter for the New Yorker with a background in law, had privileged access to many sources involved in this trial, and he had a studied understanding of the legal proceedings: he knew what was done correctly and what was not. In his book, he examines the influence of Simpson's celebrity status as well as the issues of race on the final verdict.

In a review of this book, Vincent J. Fuller, writing in the publication Trial, agreed with Toobin's assessment of miscarriage of justice and stated: "Jeffrey Toobin has written an excellent summary of the extraordinarily bungled criminal trial of O.J. Simpson. The book should be required reading for law students." Meanwhile, Jeffrey Rosen, for the New Republic, concurred with Toobin's view that race played a major part in the final verdict. Rosen wrote that "the Simpson case confirmed one of the central descriptive claims of critical race theory: that perceptions are racially contingent, and that a jarring gap in perceptions between whites and blacks can no longer be denied." Toobin, as journalist for the New Yorker, had predicted that a so-called race card might be used in the trial. As the trial unfolded, many commentators agreed that it had.

The trial spurred many books, but Rosen recommended Toobin's. "Toobin is the only one whose fair-mindedness can be trusted," he stated, adding that "what makes Toobin's book at once humanly entertaining and morally serious is its combination of a meticulous narrative of the trial with an exuberant contempt for nearly all its protagonists." Dana Kennedy, in a review for Entertainment Weekly, offered a similar opinion: "Toobin's blunt, sardonic, often morbidly funny book … is a dead-on take on what was not so much the murder of the century as the travesty of the century."

Toobin's third book, A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought down a President, covers the details of President Bill Clinton's impeachment. Again, Toobin was praised by critics for his even-handedness in covering this story. Joshua Micah Marshall, for the American Prospect, called the book "a sprightly, quick read that carries the reader along with insightful and sometimes chatty portraits of the scandal's major and minor players. The author is a master of the hilariously well-chosen and understated aside."

In Too Close to Call: The Thirty-six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election, Toobin covers the long, drawn-out presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush that culminated in one of the most controversial Supreme Court decisions in modern history. Toobin once again gives his readers an insider's view of what went on behind the scenes of one of the best cliff-hangers in recent political history. Writing for the Boston Globe, Robert L. Turner described Toobin as "a marvelous storyteller." Turner, although somewhat disappointed that Toobin did not delve more deeply into the critical events of this disputed election, acknowledged: "Toobin provides a brisk account of this major turning point in American history. He has peopled the story with deftly drawn characters … and has offered his own judgments in convincing fashion."

Toobin examines the personalities and philosophies of the men and women who serve on the highest court in the land in The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court. Based on interviews with several of the judges and seventy-five of their former clerks, the work focuses on the court's recent history, from the Reagan administration onward. Toobin offers profiles of the individual members of the court, including former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who often served as a moderate swing vote on issues such as reproductive freedom and affirmative action, and current Chief Justice John Paul Stevens, the longest-serving member of the court. He also explores the decisions behind such landmark cases as Miranda v. Arizona, which protects a suspect's Fifth Amendment rights, and Bush v. Gore, which decided the 2000 presidential election. According to New York Times contributor Michiko Kakutani, Toobin "uses his familiarity with the law not to deliver a partisan brief … but to illuminate the dynamics of the Supreme Court and to situate key decisions made by the court within a political, social and historical context. Driven by the author's assured narrative voice, The Nine is as informative as it is fascinating, as insightful as it is readable." Phil Schatz, writing in the New York Law Journal, similarly noted that the author's "descriptions of the behind-the-scenes motivations and maneuverings of the Court and its Justices are crisp and believable. The portraits of the Justices themselves are compelling and fair; although some are criticized more than others, none of them is depicted as anything less than a real (and thus fallible) human being."

Toobin, although at one time reluctant to become a writer, admitted during his interview with Coffey, "I love a good story, and the opportunity to tell it in its full dimension."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Lawyer, October, 2007, Brian Baxter, review of The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, p. 102.

American Prospect, July 17, 2000, Joshua Micah Marshall, review of A Vast Conspiracy: The Real Story of the Sex Scandal That Nearly Brought down a President, p. 43.

Booklist, August 1, 2007, Vanessa Bush, review of The Nine, p. 6.

Boston Globe, December 18, 2001, Robert L. Turner, "A Strong but Brusque Look at the 2001 Election," p. D5.

Columbia Journalism Review, January-February, 1997, Tom Goldstein, "The Race Card," pp. 56-59.

Dallas Morning News, October 17, 2007, Carl P. Leubsdorf, "The Nine: Jeffrey Toobin Looks inside the Supreme Court."

Economist, March 11, 2000, "The Lewinsky Affair—Remember?," p. 90.

Entertainment Weekly, September 20, 1996, Dana Kennedy, review of The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson, p. 73.

Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2007, review of The Nine.

Legal Times, October 14, 1996, Otto G. Obermaier, review of The Run of His Life, p. 78; September 24, 2007, James Oliphant, review of The Nine.

Library Journal, October 1, 2007, William D. Pederson, review of The Nine, p. 85.

Los Angeles Times, March 3, 1991, Scott Turow, "Good Golly, Mr. Ollie," pp. 2, 8.

New Republic, July 1, 1991, Paul Berman, review of Opening Arguments: A Young Lawyer's First Case: United States v. Oliver North, pp. 29-35; December 9, 1996, Jeffrey Rosen, review of The Run of His Life, pp. 27-42.

New York Law Journal, November 5, 1996, Joan Ullman, review of The Run of His Life, p. 2; October 11, 2007, Phil Schatz, review of The Nine.

New York Times, January 11, 2000, Michiko Kakutani, "Going over Clinton's Enemies List," p. E12; September 21, 2007, Michiko Kakutani, "Power Lineup, Swings from Right," review of The Nine.

New York Times Book Review, September 29, 1996, Wendy Kaminer, review of The Run of His Life, p. 12; February 13, 2000, Thomas Powers, "A Likely Story! Jeffrey Toobin's History of the Clinton Impeachment Unfolds the Whole Affair So It Makes a Kind of Sense," p. 9; September 23, 2007, David Margolick, "Meet the Supremes," review of The Nine, p. 1.

People, February 21, 2000, Alex Tresniowski, Ralph Novak, Jean Reynolds, review of A Vast Conspiracy, p. 43.

Publishers Weekly, January 10, 2000, Michael Coffey, "A Beltway Tale of High and Low," pp. 40-41; January 31, 2000, Dick Donahue, "A Vast Seller," p. 20; July 9, 2007, review of The Nine, p. 42.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 2007, review of The Nine.

Time, January 24, 2000, Adam Cohen, "Starr Wars: Jeffrey Toobin Revisits the Lewinsky Affair," p. 74.

Trial, March, 1997, Vincent J. Fuller, review of The Run of His Life, p. 74.

USA Today, September 18, 2007, Richard Willing, "The Nine Does Justice to Supreme Court History," p. 1.

Wall Street Journal, October 24, 1996, Philip Terzian, review of The Run of His Life, p. A16; January 12, 2000, David A. Price, "A Lawsuit, an Affair, a President," p. A20; April 20, 2000, Micah Morrison, "Clinton Revisionism," p. A26.