Ideological Drift in Supreme Court Justices
University of Minnesota
Shifting of Judicial Ideology: Do They Move to the Middle?
Damberg, Garrison, Griffiths, & Larsen
POL 3309: Justice In America
Timothy Johnson
Thursday, May 16th, 2013
Introduction:
Justice Harry Blackmun was once quoted saying “I don’t believe I’m any more liberal, as such, now than I was before” he argued that it was the Court that had changed its ideologies, not himself. To answer this our group looked into the influences and effects that played a role in justice preferences and case outcomes, so we decided to look at the ideological effects of individual justices on the Court itself. From that framed core interest, we came up with a research question of, “In the confines of the Burger Court (1969-1986), do the justices of the United States Supreme Court drift ideologically over their tenure on the bench?” We felt that this very narrow and extremely controlled Court era would allow us to best approach our hypothesis without the bias of changing courts, inexperienced justices, and Chief Justice turnover. Thus, our hypothesis came to be that justices ' ideologies tend to drift towards the center of the spectrum over their tenure largely due to their life appointments, personal experiences, and court experience. Throughout our paper you will notice references to Martin-Quinn scores, our main source of quantitative data, and an individual breakdown of justice’s who served during Burger’s tenure as Chief Justice. We include a brief discussion of the Burger Court, but then largely leave his influence behind and focus on those who shared the bench with him. We do this in an attempt to remove his influence as a Chief Justice, while making each of the justices we analyze hold equal authoritative position relative to each other in the voting process. Thus, we blend empirical data and individual case studies together in an effort to understand both how and why justices shift, as well as in what direction. In our data
Shifting of Judicial Ideology: Do They Move to the Middle?
Damberg, Garrison, Griffiths, & Larsen
POL 3309: Justice In America
Timothy Johnson
Thursday, May 16th, 2013
Introduction:
Justice Harry Blackmun was once quoted saying “I don’t believe I’m any more liberal, as such, now than I was before” he argued that it was the Court that had changed its ideologies, not himself. To answer this our group looked into the influences and effects that played a role in justice preferences and case outcomes, so we decided to look at the ideological effects of individual justices on the Court itself. From that framed core interest, we came up with a research question of, “In the confines of the Burger Court (1969-1986), do the justices of the United States Supreme Court drift ideologically over their tenure on the bench?” We felt that this very narrow and extremely controlled Court era would allow us to best approach our hypothesis without the bias of changing courts, inexperienced justices, and Chief Justice turnover. Thus, our hypothesis came to be that justices ' ideologies tend to drift towards the center of the spectrum over their tenure largely due to their life appointments, personal experiences, and court experience. Throughout our paper you will notice references to Martin-Quinn scores, our main source of quantitative data, and an individual breakdown of justice’s who served during Burger’s tenure as Chief Justice. We include a brief discussion of the Burger Court, but then largely leave his influence behind and focus on those who shared the bench with him. We do this in an attempt to remove his influence as a Chief Justice, while making each of the justices we analyze hold equal authoritative position relative to each other in the voting process. Thus, we blend empirical data and individual case studies together in an effort to understand both how and why justices shift, as well as in what direction. In our data
References: Furman v. Georgia. 408 U.S. 238. Supreme Court of the United States. 1972 Glendon, Mary, and Eric Treene Greenhouse, Linda. Becoming Justice Blackmun: Harry Blackmun 's Supreme Court Journey. New York: Times, 2005 Hutchinson, Dennis. The Man Who Once Was Whizzer White: A Portrait of Justice Byron R. White. New York: Free Press, 1998. Print. Johnson, Timothy Jost, Kenneth. "The Courtship of Byron White." ABA Journal. October (1993): 62-67. Print. Justices, with Special Attention to the Problem of Ideological Drift." Northwestern University School of Law. Northwestern University Law Review, 2007. Web. 10 May 2013. "Perspectives on White: A Roundtable." ABA Journal. (1993): 68-73. Print. Potter Stewart, 1958-1981." The Supreme Court History