When I requested this book, I thought the topic would be about something else.
As a result, I will not be providing a review for it.
N/A

Can you say that you loved a book that made you as furious as this one made me? Senator Whitehouse and Jennifer Mueller use clear prose and a great tempo to lay out all the small ways in which the conservative movement has turned our country from one "by and for the people" to one "by and for the corporations" and then focusing on the scheme to capture the courts. The narrator did a great job, though I kept wishing for Senator Whitehouse's own voice and righteous indignation as a soundtrack. A big thank you to Kalorama Audio and NetGalley for the early listen of this great book in return for my honest opinion.

Thanks to NetGalley and Kalorama Audio for the audiobook ARC!

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, from my neighbor state of Rhode Island, shows himself to be a very astute political observer. He points out many instances in his book of things not being what they seem on the surace, and things not adding up. Senator Whitehouse describes the Conservative takeover of the Supreme Court as a fully developed 'Scheme', which may or may not be the whole story, but the points he makes about the way the balance of power has shifted are very interesting and thought-provoking. I tend to disbelieve any over-arching 'mastermind' type theory, but there are certainly major issues with the way the Court has changed over the last 10 years, and what implications it has on our futures. Senator Whitehouse does a good job of pointing out many of these issues.

The Scheme by Sheldon Whitehouse is a concise, easy to digest explanation of how dark money and lack of campaign finance reform has allowed our Supreme Court to be taken over by the influence of large corporations. Sheldon Whitehouse is a long time senator who gained notoriety for his daily climate change presentations to the Senate.

While the subject matter of this book is incredibly heavy and infuriating, Whitehouse does an excellent job keeping the narrative moving versus getting stuck in the mire. That said, this book left me feeling angry and with a sense of existential dread. There’s simply no escaping that this is a huge issue for the United States going forward.

This is clearly a partisan and political issue, but he also does an excellent job explaining the shift in the Republican party as well as placing necessary blame on the Democratic Party for not being more vocal when this dark money power shift began to occur. Sheldon Whitehouse and the book with a call for bipartisanship and suggestions for how we can move forward. If you care about this issue, I would encourage you to contact your representatives in Congress and ask for a code of ethics to be applied to the Supreme Court as it is to other justices. This would be a significant step towards accountability for SCOTUS.

Overall, I think this is a highly important read. It is not light but it is an issue that anyone who cares about justice and democracy should be abreast of. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ALC in exchange for my honest review.