'Supreme Courtship' examines judicial process

Christopher Buckley uses a conversational tone to tell the story of a TV judge.

By James Patrick Schmidt

Published Sept. 4, 2008

A TV judge being appointed to the Supreme Court.

Ridiculous as it sounds, that's the premise for Christopher Buckley's new book, "Supreme Courtship." Buckley, who is probably best known as the author of "Thank You for Smoking," turns his attention to the shrouds of mystery surrounding the highest court and the politics affecting the decisions it makes.

Of course, Buckley can't ignore the involvement of the president and the Senate in the selection of a new justice (the president appoints the new justice and the Senate approves or denies the nominee, for those who slept through Poli Sci 1100), so the satirical tale explores the full extent of the highest levels of all three branches of government (executive, judicial and legislative for the sleepers).

Stylistically, Buckley uses a conversational tone and constantly switches between perspectives of several characters. As an interesting (but often helpful and funny) tool, Buckley uses parenthesis to set off words that make the thoughts of the politicians not politically correct.

When it comes to taking sides, Buckley doesn't. He attacks conservatives, liberals and everyone in between. Besides the hilarity of the storyline - which goes well beyond the appointment and confirmation hearings of the very attractive television judge from Plano, Texas, but will not be spoiled here - there are a lot of one-liners in character dialogue that poke fun at the way American politics works and how the Constitution has been, or could be, bastardized.

The setting of the story seems to be a few years into the future. Current events and political figures are treated as parts of the past, including the completion of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Also, none of current justices are sitting on the court in "Supreme Courtship."

There is one issue Buckley seems to overlook when referencing the Constitution (sorry, there is one more spoiler). In relation to a case involving the legitimate re-election of the president, the Electoral College is never mentioned. Although many people won't see a problem with this, it is still a hole in a story that is otherwise flawless in pointing out just how ridiculous the American political system can be.

The second, and greatest, problem was that the story reached a bit of a lull in the middle. The beginning was strong and surprising and managed to maintain its energy for the first third of the book, but it lost some of its momentum after that. This is not to say that the middle wasn't comical, but it relied on the use of one-liner references to some of the stranger political happenings of history, including Bush v. Gore (the case involving the 2000 presidential election. Bush won the case - and the election - as a result).

For the conclusion, Buckley was able to re-establish the energy and close with a bang, making up for the downtime that precedes it. Overall, the book is thought-provoking and realistic enough to suggest that maybe, just maybe, Judge Judy has a new career waiting for her.