Cloak and Gavel: FBI Wiretaps, Bugs, Informers, and the Supreme Court

by Alexander Charns

The definitive history of the FBI and the Supreme Court.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Alex Charns · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Cloak and Gavel" . . . is the product of an eight-year struggle to force the FBI to reveal its Supreme Court snooping. Charns got . . . hard evidence that Hoover attempted to monitor the court's private deliberations and manipulate some of the justices." Wall Street Journal, A13. “The FBI's scandalous techniques ranged from illegal wiretapping, to disinformation campaigns, to using Justice Abe Fortas as a Bureau informant." Harvard Law Review, Vol 106, p. 812. "[A] bonanza of Supreme Court history, providing depth and perspective to some great cases of our time." St Louis Post-Dispatch.

[B · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was a lot of research and there is a curious synchronicity in the conclusion of the Warren Court and the decline and death of J. Edgar Hoover. Unfortunately, this short book does not quite "get it together." It reads as a series of unrelated facts and unsupported speculation rather than a complete narrative.

Basically the author got a lot of information from FOIA requests but could not stitch it together into a complete account. Still, there's something here for future historians of the judiciary to consider.