The inner workings of the Supreme Court have always been shrouded in mystery.

However, a new book promises to unveil the hidden dynamics within the nation’s highest court, revealing candid accounts from former staff about their experiences with the Justices.

In “Alito: The Justice Who Reshaped the Supreme Court and Restored the Constitution,” conservative journalist Mollie Hemingway delves into the relationships between the justices and their clerks, offering a rare glimpse behind the scenes.

The book zeroes in on Justice Samuel Alito, known for his influential opinions on gun rights and labor union powers, and who is currently the subject of speculation regarding his potential retirement from the bench.

Each Supreme Court Justice typically works with four clerks per term, chosen through an intensely competitive selection process, giving them a unique vantage point within the corridors of judicial power.

According to Hemingway, who interviewed more than 100 former clerks and staff members for her book, liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor are reputedly the most challenging to work for.

Hemingway alleges that several of Kagan’s former clerks, ‘along with others at the Court, have described her as “emotionally abusive,” “demanding, demoralizing, demeaning,” and “a hard a**.”‘

‘Kagan’s clerks had fear in their eyes,’ Hemingway said someone who clerked for a different justice recounted to her.

US Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan leaves the funeral service for retired US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor at Washington National Cathedral on December 19, 2023

US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor speaks at the New York Law School’s Constitution and Citizen Day Summit, in New York, Tuesday, September 16, 2025

The book’s author, Mollie Hemingway, during a Fox News appearance

Other former aides speculated that there is ‘something psychological going on there,’ Hemingway writes. 

Other clerks compared Kagan to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, moving from ‘extremely kind to extremely angry,’ Hemingway claims.

Another former staffer said Kagan is ‘like Klobuchar’ – a reference to Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, who was the subject of a New York Times article about her alleged poor treatment of her staff.

Meanwhile, Sotomayor is said to have treated members of the Court’s ‘permanent staff’ like ‘valet[s].’

There are known ‘stories of [Sotomayor] barking at them to help her carry her bags,’ per Hemingway’s book.

Hemingway describes Kagan and Sotomayor’s behavior as distinct from their colleagues’, and notes that most former clerks and permanent staff members have great opinions of their former bosses.

Justice Clarence Thomas, a conservative, Hemingway says, is among the most beloved by staff.  

‘He knows everybody’s name. He doesn’t just know their name. He knows when they’re having a new grandchild or where they grew up. He really, really cares about people,’ Hemingway writes. 

Turning to the subject of her book, Justice Alito, Hemingway said that he’s more reserved than people expect, but still ‘very kind to the staff and clerks at the Court.’

She writes that the 76-year-old has surprised ‘many’ with his ‘wit and sense of humor.’

‘His staff and clerks adore him so much. Most of the justices have pretty good relationships with staff and clerks,’ Hemingway added, underscoring that Kagan and Sotomayor, ‘those with reputations to the contrary, are the outliers.’

US Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito attends an event in Rome, Italy, September 20, 2025

US Supreme Court justices pose for their group portrait on October 7, 2022. Seated (L-R): Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and Elena Kagan. Standing (L-R): Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson

Over a decade of relationship-building with the annual rotating roster of short-term clerks and the institution’s permanent staff, Hemingway has built a rolodex of deep-rooted contacts.

While writing the book, she also interviewed some of the justices themselves, placing her in an elite club, one that rarely includes conservative female reporters.

A significant portion of the book focuses on the fallout from the unprecedented leak of a draft 2022 Dobbs decision, authored by Alito, which overturned the Roe v Wade ruling of 1973 that established the constitutional right to an abortion. 

Hemingway also claimed of that landmark decision that after the leak, the liberal justices delayed the ‘decision from being finalized.’

Amid the slew of death threats, justices had to wear bulletproof vests.

‘If they’d killed one of the majority justices, Roe would not have been overturned,’ Hemingway noted, adding that ‘the liberals knew that, and they delayed their dissent for nearly two months.’

The Supreme Court is notoriously hard to crack. But now a new book is exposing the secret goings-on behind the scenes

‘It’s just unconscionable… I do think that the justices were very frustrated that they got no help from Merrick Garland, and they got no help from the Department of Justice,’ Hemingway noted, before adding that Congress also did little to protect the justices.

After the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year, President Donald Trump’s administration requested $58 million to protect Supreme Court Justices and executive branch figures.

Congress had previously approved additional funding for their own security ahead of last year’s August recess break following escalations of political violence against members of both political parties.

The Daily Mail reached out to the Supreme Court for comment and representatives for Kagan and Sotomayor.

The book is the second literary foray into the world of the Supreme Court for Hemingway, who previously authored a book in 2019 about the confirmation process for Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

She is also the author of Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections, which was released in 2021, and Trump vs the Media, released in 2017.