Vol. 5 No. 2 (February, 1995) pp. 36-38

SPECIAL ISSUE, JUDICIAL PROCESS TEXTS
Michael W. McCann, Editor

JUDICIAL POLITICS: READINGS FROM JUDICATURE by Elliot E. Slotnick (Editor). Chicago: American Judicature Society, 1992. 664 pp. Paper $27.95.

Reviewed by William Haltom, Department of Politics and Government, University of Puget Sound.

This reader collects sixty-nine articles previously published in JUDICATURE, the journal of the American Judicature Society. Guided in part by a survey of potential adopters, Professor Slotnick has organized articles on legal matters in the United States into eight major sections: the role of the Supreme Court in the constitutional system [pp. 1-51], major officials and actors in jural processes [pp. 53-272], issues of representation [pp. 273-326], trial courts [pp. 327-388], appellate court processes [pp. 389-496], judicial publics'' such as media and Congress [pp. 497-605], alternative dispute resolution [pp. 607-637], and judicial policy-making [pp. 639-660].

Both the propensities of the journal and the norms of instructors have shaped this compendium, making it doubly mainstream. Hence, instructors' and students' orientations toward legal, political, and academic mainstreams will determine the utility of this volume. Almost all articles will prove useful to some instructors and many students, and the large number of articles will permit adopters to select and to assign many readings tailored to readers' sophistication and specialization.

Introductory courses on courts feature attention to judicial nuts and bolts,'' so many instructors will seek articles to supplement main textbooks. In this reader, they will find elementary, accessible, and pithy descriptions of legal officers and offices that are novel even to well prepared beginners [for examples, the Solicitor General, U. S. magistrates, and law clerks]. Other selections conveniently enrich or update understanding of subjects about which students have some preconceptions [for examples, juries, jurors, and cameras in courtrooms] or may be reading elsewhere [for examples, differences between arbitration and mediation or the American Bar Association's Committee on Federal Judiciary]. Professor Slotnick has included enough such supplementary essays to justify the expense of the reader.

The reader also includes historical vignettes to inform undergraduate naifs and graduate sophisticates alike. The demise of Chief Justice Rose Bird and her allies on the California Supreme Court, the historical sweep of appointments to the United States Supreme Court, the battle of amici curiae in WEBSTER v. REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH SERVICES, trends in the Warren and Burger Courts evident from the Supreme Court Data Base, and the Burger Court's tendencies in state civil liberties cases all provide perspective to a range of readers. Very few of the articles are highly specific and almost none struck me as recondite. Indeed, I could envision teaching an upper-division course or pro-seminar that used this reader to represent aspects of the sub-field of public law.

Among the most valuable resources in the collection are analyses that are as accessible as but far more penetrating than almost all journalism and many textbooks. Tyros and veterans alike will profit from such readings. The unanticipated consequences of limiting the jurisdiction of federal courts and

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the often unacknowledged successes of the Legal Services Corporation are two studies that should inform policy-makers, pundits, and reporters but seldom seem to do so. Even attentive readers of mass media, then, can mine such serious but understandable essays. Professor Canon's classic dimensionalization of judicial activism'' and Professor Wasby's deft unraveling of judicial imperialism'' could, by themselves, immunize readers against perhaps half the fallacious reasoning and fatuous rhetoric about judges and courts that foul newsprint and fill airwaves. These essays, by showing students what skilled inquiry and relentless logic can accomplish, may motivate readers to pursue less prosaic and more intellectual information.

Instructors and students in advanced courses will also appreciate surveys, updates, and reassessments of topical but enduring questions. The four articles on U. S. juries, for example, neatly summarize problems with reducing the size of juries and the degree of unanimity necessary for verdicts, the relationship of juror characteristics to jury verdicts, knowledge and ignorance regarding scientific jury selection, and enhancing jurors' ability to handle complex cases. What scholars have learned and what they do not yet know about judicial-retention elections, appointments to the Supreme Court of the United States, and presidents' efforts to shape federal courts nicely augment appreciation of the politics of judicial recruitment. Multiple articles on judicial review, judicial activism, and judicial policy-making also seem well tailored to inform debates among somewhat experienced undergraduates. Articles on the pace of civil litigation and judicial supervision of guilty pleas may prove too challenging for many students but will please more advanced and more empirical tastes.

Few of the entries aspire to or attain very imposing theory, but the exceptions are telling. An assessment of the effects of race on the criminal justice system does not by itself advance theory but clearly bears on conventional and critical theories of criminal justice. Professors Watson and Stookey create a theoretical model of confirmation hearings for U. S. Supreme Court justices that will inform scholar and student alike.

The good news about this reader, in sum, is that Professor Slotnick was selective but also inclusive, with the result that teachers about law and courts will find many articles that suit their pedagogy, objectives, and students.

On the other hand, the predilections of the referees and editors of JUDICATURE and the preferences of surveyed faculty have led to selections and patterns of selections that may disappoint some potential adopters.

Perhaps the most annoying tendency is the emphasis on the United States Supreme Court. The preponderance of Supreme Court articles may reflect a) major trends in JUDICATURE, b) the enthusiasms of instructors and students, c) curricula of most colleges, or d) all of the above. Whatever the reason for the imbalance, the imbalance is staggering at times. The sub-section Access and Docketing Decisions'' ought to provide among its five entries at least one that focuses on courts other than the Supremes'' to battle the belief that all or most of the legal action takes place in the District of Columbia, if for

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no other reason. The section labeled Appellate Court Processes'' consists of ten articles, of which nine wholly or mostly concern the Supreme Court of the United States! Do not let the label of the sub-section States and State Courts'' fool you: three out of five articles therein mostly pertain to the High Court. Instructors battling over-emphasis on the Supreme Court will find too little to assist their efforts in this collection.

Instructors who stress sub-national'' judiciaries in their courses will find it even less helpful. JUDICIAL POLITICS has become nationalized.'' Only the most imaginative coder would regard a third of the articles in the compendium as pertinent to state or local courts, officers, or institutions.

Instructors whose courses take a comparative approach to the study of courts will find no help. JUDICATURE seldom informs the study of comparative law and comparative judicial process and behavior, and few scholars and instructors test their knowledge outside the borders of the United States, so I suppose it is understandable that this collection pertains to comparative law, process, and behavior barely if at all. I understand this imbalance but do not regard it as a justification.

Aside from these three systematic disappointments, tastes will determine whether adopters and students will be pleased or annoyed with selections. Introductory students may enjoy glib remarks from such celebrities as Senators Simon and Heflin, Judge Wallace, and Justices Stevens and Brennan, but I suspect that advanced students will find at most a convenient footnote for obvious points. In contrast, too many of the inside baseball'' articles are so uncritical that they may mislead less informed students. As a Supreme Court beat reporter fawns over his sources, for instance, astute students may see how the Court secures favorable coverage and how the myth of mechanical jurisprudence is reinforced for television viewers, but gullible students may be utterly disarmed. In a similar manner, advanced students will probably benefit from critiquing the four panel discussions, which newcomers will find as riveting as an evening of C-SPAN.

In sum, JUDICIAL POLITICS is no box of chocolates. You can see what you are likely to get. For many courses and many students, this collection will be useful as required or recommended reading. However, instructors out of the mainstream, either those who approach courts and law from broadly theoretical, contextual, or critical perspectives, or those who design their courses to overcome overemphasis on the Highest Court, national courts, and U. S. courts, might use this reader only to identify major biases in the sub-discipline.