20 May 30 • 2019
jn

Series Kickoff

Toobin talks about Supreme Court
for fi
 rst of Temple Israel lectures.
W

hen Hilary King became 
the congregation president 
of Temple Israel in West 
Bloomfield, she had big ideas for the 
future of the congregation. She and 
her husband, Edan, wanted to use 
their influence to make Temple Israel a 
thought leader in the community. 
“We wanted to make Temple Israel 
more than just a synagogue, also a 
place of learning for the community,
” 
she said. 
Toward this goal, the Kings are 
sponsoring a speaker series at Temple 
Israel called “The Many Shades of 
Politics: An American Journey.
” The 
series will bring speakers from all 
different backgrounds and political 
affiliations to Temple Israel to engage 
the community in discourse about rel-
evant topics. 
The series kicked off May 21 with 
Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’
s senior legal ana-
lyst and writer for the New Yorker. It 
also happened to be Toobin’
s birthday. 
Toobin is the author of multiple 
books including The Nine: Inside the 
World of the Supreme Court and The 
Oath: The Obama White House and 
Supreme Court. His main interest, 
or “obsession” as he calls it, is the 
Supreme Court and how it is impacted 
by and impacts the politics of its day. 
He began his presentation by dis-
cussing current presiding Supreme 
Court justices. He reminded the audi-
ence that the current court is com-
prised of five conservatives and four 
liberals.
“The court is narrowly but clearly 
divided along the same lines as the 
American people,
” Toobin said. 

He also spoke of the historical prec-
edent for the Supreme Court being 
heavily influenced by public opinion. 
In the 1960s, for example, Toobin said 
the courts, despite being evenly split, 
supported a very liberal agenda. He 
also cited how the Nixon and Reagan 
presidencies in the 1970s and 1980s 
correlated with a conservative shift 
in the courts and in public opinion, a 
shift he credits largely to former U.S. 
Attorney General Edwin Meese in 
1981.
Bringing it back to a more modern 
discussion, Toobin said we are expe-
riencing a similar conservative shift 
today. 
After his presentation, he took ques-
tions from the audience and signed his 
books in the lobby. 
Shelly Segall, a Temple Israel mem-
ber, said, “I thought he was great. “It 
was very enlightening and relevant; 
it was everything we expected and 
more.
” 
While most in the audience seemed 
to like Toobin’
s presentation, some 
weren’
t so sure about it.
“I thought it was an outdated topic,
” 
said Michael Ginsburg of Southfield. “I 
thought it was irrelevant to what’
s hap-
pening today, especially considering 
he works for CNN. I felt like he was 
just trying to be non-controversial the 
whole time.
”
Despite some mixed feedback, 
Hilary King was pleased with the out-
come of the kickoff event.
“I think it went really well,
” she said. 
“We are reviewing names for upcom-
ing events and are excited to do it 
again.
” ■

JESSIE COHEN 

jews d
in 
the

JESSIE COHEN JN INTERN

Jeffrey Toobin addresses a capacity crowd at Temple Israel.

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