How Supreme Court Justices Decide Cases

In his book Decision, Bernard Schwartz, the Chapman Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tulsa, writes about how the justices of the United States Supreme Court decide cases making reference to specific cases and the arguments offered in those deliberations, and in so doing he also analyzes the behavior and ideas of several Associate Justices from Felix Frankfurter to Sandra Day O'Connor.

He first examines the decisions in Roe v. Wade and Webster v. Reproductive Health Services and shows the tension between Justice Blackmun and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist over the issue of abortion. One of the most divisive issues in American politics today is abortion, with strong feelings on both sides and with two unyielding perspectives in direct conflict. The pro-life perspective sees human life as beginning at conception, and therefore any abortion for any reason is considered murder. The pro-choice movement sees the issue as being the right of the woman to control her own body, and for this movement abortion is to be provided on demand, with no governmental controls on the matter at all. While there are some pro-life people who make allowances for abortion under some circumstances, such as when the life of the mother is endangered or in the case of rape or incest, the core of the movement holds abortion as wrong under any circumstances. For millions of people in the middle, abortion is allowable under some circumstances, but some controls are also to be all

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extend it through all of society. At the same time, the Supreme Court offered further hope by striking down the "separate but equal" doctrine in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. This major decision was supposed to be implemented "with all deliberate speed," according to the decision itself. Warren guided the Court to its decision in Brown by setting a different tone than had prevailed before, and the manner in which Warren drafted the opinion was instrumental in gaining the number of votes needed to get agreement. Another instance in which Warren achieved consensus is discussed on the reapportionment issue in 1964 in Reynolds v. Sims. His influence in criminal law is noted with Mapp v. Ohio (1961), Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966), the latter leading to the well-known Miranda warning. The decisions in Gideon v. Wainwright (1963), Mapp v. Ohio (1961), and Miranda v. Arizona (1966) have all been controversial in their time. All are generally accepted today, though there remain some who believe each decision was decided wrongly or at least made law enforcement more difficult. The Mapp decision is probably the most controversial, followed by the Miranda decision, and with much less concern exp

Category: Government - H