Unbalanced Scales

Above the Law: Secret Deals, Politics Fixes, and Other Misadventures of the U.S. Department of Justice
by David Burnham
Scribner, 1996. 444 pp. $27.50.

David Burnham is one of America’s most distinguished investigative writers. During his years as a reporter for the New York Times, his work with Frank Serpico opened the eyes of the country to institutionalized corruption in the New York City Police Department. His work with Karen Silkwood marked a major chapter in the exposure of the dangers posed by the nuclear power industry. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he provided the most searching coverage of high technology available in any American newspaper. His The Rise of the Computer State (1983) d...