Book Reviews : The Judicial Mind: The Attitudes and Ideologies of Supreme Court Justices 1946- 1963. By GLENDON SCHUBERT. (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1965. Pp. xix, 295. $10.00.)

DOI10.1177/106591296601900155
Published date01 March 1966
Date01 March 1966
Subject MatterArticles
199
The
Judicial
Mind:
The
Attitudes
and
Ideologies
of
Supreme
Court
Justices
1946-
1963.
By
GLENDON
SCHUBERT.
(Evanston:
Northwestern
University
Press,
1965.
Pp. xix, 295.
$10.00.)
This
impressive
book
is
about
&dquo;the
elite
group
of
judicial
oligarchs
who
act
as
the
super-ego
of
the
popular
sovereigns
of
the
American
system
of
constitutional
democracy.&dquo;
In
the
1930’s,
the
legal
realist
focused
on
two
questions:
How
do
judges
decide
certain
classes
of
cases
and
how
ought
such
cases
to
be
decided.
In
the
1960’s
the
judicial
behavioralist
repeats
the
first
question
but
his
second
inquiry
is
-
why
do
judges
decide
as
they
do.
There
are
alternative
ways
in
which
a
scholar
may
seek
an
answer
to
this
question.
Some
attempt
to
tie
social
background
to
decisional
out-
come ;
others
are
satisfied
with
the
rationale
given
in
the
judge’s
opinion;
the
judicial
behavioralist
is
more
likely
to
look
for
motivating
factors
in
the
attitudinal
structure
of
the
individual
judge.
Glendon
Schubert’s
The
Judicial
Mind
exemplifies
this
latter
approach.
This
volume
is
the
latest
in
a
series
of
books
and
articles
in
which
Schubert
has
developed
the
notion
that
the
attitudes
of
Supreme
Court
justices
largely
determine
the
choices
they
make
in
the
cases
coming
before
them.
The
title
of
the
book
and
some
of
its
content
may
suggest
to
the
reader
that
the
mind
of
the
judge
is
a
bushel
basket
which
contains
in
advance
all
the
appro-
priate
responses
to
the
external
stimuli
presented
by
judicial
cases.
I
do
not
think
this
to
be
the
author’s
intention.
For
it
seems
fairly
obvious
that
the
response
of
a
judge
to
some
future stimulus
is
like
the
answer
to
a
hypothetical
question.
It
may
have
little
or
no
relationship
to
the
response
which
actually
occurs
when
reality
intrudes
its
ugly
head.
Basically,
the
author’s
theory
is
as
follows:
The
tendency
of
judges
to
agree
in
their
responses
to
cases
is
a
function
of
common
attitudes
toward
the
issues
which
the
cases
raise.
By
attitude
Schubert
means
a
set
of
related
and
stable
opinions
on
the
same
issue.
Since
any
given
case
may
present
several
issue
elements,
judicial
response
may
be
the
result
of
combining
reactions
to
various
factors
to
produce
a
single
choice,
i.e.,
a
vote
pro
or
con
the
plaintiff
in
the
case.
Assuming
that
all
judges
in
a
collegial
court
agree
in their
identification
of
the
issue
elements
(a
rather
large
assumption ) ,
the
acceptability
of
each
singly
and
in
combination
is
attitudinally
determined.
For
the
Supreme
Court,
Schubert
asks:
What
are
the
number
and
content
of
the
ideologies
sufficient
to
explain
the
responses
of
the
justices
in
the
cases
they
de-
cide ?
Three
ideologies
are
identified
-
equalitarianism,
libertarianism,
and
indi-
vidualism.
While
all
three
were
not
equally
operative
in
the
terms
studied,
1946-
62,
Schubert
suggests
that
much
of
the
observed
voting
behavior
in
the
seventeen
terms
is
subject
to
explanation
by
the
political
and
economic
attitudes
which
com-
pose
these
ideologies.
In
the
last
chapter
but
one,
the
author
devotes
36
pages
to
&dquo;The
Circumflex
of
Liberalism.&dquo;
Here
he
presents
ideas
and
materials
not
developed
in
his
earlier
writ-
ings.
Basically,
Schubert
concludes
that
conservatives
on
the
Supreme
Court
can
be
further
classified
as
&dquo;dogmatists&dquo;
and
&dquo;pragmatists.&dquo;
Using
this
additional
dimen-
sion,
he
finds
that
&dquo;during
all
except
the
most
recent
of
the
seventeen
terms
studied,
the
attitudinal
differences
of
Supreme
Court
justices
toward
political
and
economic

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT