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.