Judicial Restraint vs Judicial Activism

• Justices are influenced by legal and extra-legal factors when making decisions.
• Judges decide cases based on the Constitution and their interpretation of statutes.
• Stare decisis principles state that justices should base decisions on the law of previous cases.

Judicial Restraint

• Advocates of judicial restraint believe courts should respect the decisions of other government branches, even when those decisions conflict with a judge's principles.
• The debate over activism versus restraint is central to judicial decision-making.
• Restraint urges judges to avoid deciding legal and especially constitutional issues unless necessary to resolve a dispute between opposing parties.
• Judges should defer to the elected branches and only invalidate actions when constitutional limits are clearly violated.
• Those who advocate for restraint argue that federal courts are the least democratic branch because they are composed of unelected judges.

Judicial Activism

• Judicial activism is the idea that judges should use their power broadly to promote justice, especially in equality and personal liberty.
• Roe v. Wade (1973), which liberalized abortion laws, is referred to as an example of judicial activism.
• The Court should defer policy making on sensitive issues to the states or other branches of the federal government, as their officials are elected and more receptive to the majority's will.
• Judges should use their power broadly to further justice, especially in equality and personal liberty.
• Courts have a role in correcting injustices by other government branches and protecting oppressed minorities.
• Brown v. Board of Education(1954) is a case for judicial activism, in which the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools violated the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection clause.
• Segregation was practiced even after the Fourteenth Amendment was passed.
• If the Court had not reinterpreted the amendment's provisions, many states would continue segregation.

Conservative Judicial Activism

• Judges use their positions to issue conservative rulings that impose conservative political beliefs.
• Increased conservative judicial activism has affected the Court's reliance on stare decisis.
• Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist noted that "stare decisis is a cornerstone of our legal system... it has less power in constitutional cases".

Models of Judicial Decision-Making

• Political scientists studying judicial behavior conclude that judicial decision making is influenced by many forces.
• Models integrate factors to explain how judges vote and offer a complete picture of judicial decisions.
• These models consider justices' individual behavioral characteristics, attitudes, and case facts.

Behavioral Characteristics

• Social background differences influence how a judge evaluates the facts and legal issues in a case.
• Childhood experiences, religious values, education, political and legal careers, and political party loyalties inform the way a judge evaluates the legal issues.
• Justice Harry A. Blackmun's service at the Mayo Clinic is a reason that his opinion for the Court in Roe v. Wade (1973) was grounded in medical evidence.
• Justice Potter Stewart, generally considered a moderate on civil liberties issues, took a liberal stance on freedom of the press cases, possibly due to his past as a newspaper reporter.

The Attitudinal Model

• Supreme Court justices decide cases based on their personal preferences for public policy issues.
• Factors used to derive attitudes include a justice's party, the appointing president's party, and the justice's leanings.
• A liberal justice appointed by a Democratic president would likely favor the pro-choice point of view in an abortion case.
• A conservative justice appointed by a Republican president would likely favor measures supporting a free-market economy.
• Justices would manipulate the law to support their ideological beliefs.

The Strategic Model

• Judges act strategically, weighing their actions against others to optimize the chances their preferences are adopted by the Court.
• This approach considers congressional/judicial and judicial/executive relations that affect legal disputes.

Public Opinion

• Justices have knowledge of public opinion, especially on controversial issues.
• Public opinion acts as a check on the power of the courts and an energizing factor.
• Activist periods on the Supreme Court correspond to social or economic crises.
• The Court reversed decisions that blocked President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation after 1936 because of political pressures and public opinion.
• The courts and Supreme Court are targets of public opinion.
• When Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989) came before the Supreme Court, the Court was subjected to lobbying as people marched and sent appeals to the Court.
• The Court depends on the public for its prestige and compliance with decisions.
• During emergencies, the Court has decided cases based on public opinion and political exigencies.
• Public confidence and support for the Court was highest after U.S. v. Nixon (1974).
• When Americans lost faith, they could look to the Supreme Court to do the right thing.
• Initial rulings on controversial issues such as abortion or capital punishment influence public opinion in the direction of the Court's opinion.