NCJ Number
117463
Date Published
1987
Length
269 pages
Annotation
This social scientific investigation (drawing on philosophy and anthropology) of the U.S. Supreme Court emphasizes that the Court is an institution and that its authority is founded less in the claim of legal expertise than in hierarchical finality, i.e., the assertion of political will, not of legal judgment.
Abstract
The opening chapter presents a framework for studying the Supreme Court by viewing the Court as an institution in which practices account for institutional life, such as the Court's ability to transcend the changing personalities that compose it. The second chapter explores the relationship of the institution to the Federal Government's authority, followed by a chapter that tracks the 'cult of the judge' as a transformation of the cult of the robe. The perception of the judge is linked to how the institution is viewed and reflects the ideologies of authority on which the institution relies. The symbolism of the building, constructed in 1936, is examined in the fourth chapter. Activities within the building are divided into three kinds of support: institutional, legal, and policy. Chapter five analyzes the Court's business, i.e., the flow of litigation and its influence on the institution, followed by a chapter that describes institutional action, particularly the decisions and opinions announced by the justices. Authority and policy, discussed in chapter seven, are linked, as the policy and the outcomes reached by the Court are related to the dominant belief system of the culture within which it operates. The final chapter evaluates institutional independence and the Court's policy contribution, past and future. Two polarities, one between law and politics and the other between institution and doctrine, provide the foundation. Appended Supreme Court budget requests, chapter notes, 352 references, subject index.