like seriously wtf?!

Jeffrey Toobin's new book "The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court" is due out September 18th. The highlights? Turns out Justice Souter is afraid of the future, the Court's law clerks were hammered when they read the briefs in Bush v. Gore (sounds about right), and even Justice Scalia thinks that Justice Thomas is a nut. Read more here.

More news from the legal world: turns out some folks want to take life tenure away from the Supreme Court justices. The most surprising thing to me is that this isn't a conservative backlash against so-called "activist judges." While frequent confirmation battles might give us legal nerds something to talk about other than bad jokes about Justice Thomas, pubic hair, and Coke cans, I'm not sure that this is such a good idea. I mean, what about that whole business about judicial independence? But, then again, I might be some sort of Constitutional idealist. Discuss amongst yourselves.

It turns out that Eli Manning (or Manning-the-Lesser as I think you all should call him) is feeling a bit better after the bruised shoulder he suffered Week 1 against the Cowboys. Even though I have Plaxico Burress (he of the three touchdown receptions Week 1) on my fantasy team, I'm a bit bummed at this news. If Manning is a no-go this week, Jared Lorenzen would get the nod and take Manning's place under center. If Lorenzen got the start, it would give fat kids everywhere the hope of one day playing quarterback in the NFL.

Lastly, your Latin legal term of the day: inter alia. You know, as in "David Ortiz is, inter alia, the most clutch baseball player of this generation."