The Impact of Ideology on Judicial Decision Making

A few months ago, Justice Scalia claimed that his socially conservative personal views did not affect his judicial decision making.  When he made that claim, I expressed some surprise because it flies in the face of a lot of what we know about how judges reach conclusions in controversial cases.  For further evidence that personal political ideology plays an important role in some kinds of judicial decision making, take a look at this piece by Cass Sunstein.  It summarizes his findings that political ideology heavily influences the federal judiciary, including the current Supreme Court, in politically charged administrative law matters.

Thanks to the Situationist Blog for the pointer.

Comments

[Patrick S. O'Donnell]

One would hope this would put to rest once and for all the shibboleth of “liberal judicial activism”....

Incidentally, Sunstein co-authored the paper with Thomas Miles (important to note if only because it helps account for Sunstein's seemingly superhuman productivity!)

Finally, I hope everyone reads the paper in full, which would entail a consideration of their proposed "solutions:"

"The first involves self-correction without doctrinal change, brought about by judges’ own understanding of the problem of politicized administrative law. The second set includes doctrinal responses, taking the form of new developments involving the governing legal principles. The third and most ambitious set involves institutional innovation, as, for example, through voting rules or requirements of mixed panels."