Please Explain (the Leonard Lopate Show)

President Obama said last month that our Supreme Court, "is supposed to be above politics, not an extension of politics. And it should stay that way.”  But has the Court ever been non-partisan in practice? Is it even possible for nine justices to stay out of politics? In light of the contention over Merrick Garland's Supreme Court nomination, we're looking at the politics of the Supreme Court on today's Please Explain.  Jeffrey Toobin, staff writer at The New Yorker, senior legal analyst at CNN and author of the forthcoming book American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst, joins us to shed some light on the inner-workings of the Supreme Court. Nina Totenberg, NPR's award-winning legal affairs correspondent, also joins the conversation.