What Justices Want
Goals and Personality on the U.S. Supreme Court

Examines how personality traits shape the behavior of US Supreme Court justices, proposing a new theory of judicial behavior.

Matthew E. K. Hall (Author)

9781108472746, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 August 2018

224 pages, 23 b/w illus. 12 tables
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.7 cm, 0.46 kg

'… Hall's book is an impressive piece of work. Its insights are valuable for scholars, graduate students, and [*49] advanced undergraduates interested in Supreme Court dynamics and the practical implications of personality theory. The book did exactly what good books in the discipline are supposed to do: it made me think about how justices approach their tasks in an entirely different way. Hall is clearly pushing the envelope in the right direction.' Eileen Braman, Law and Politics Book Review

The most sophisticated theories of judicial behavior depict judges as rational actors who strategically pursue multiple goals when making decisions. However, these accounts tend to disregard the possibility that judges have heterogeneous goal preferences - that is, that different judges want different things. Integrating insights from personality psychology and economics, this book proposes a new theory of judicial behavior in which judges strategically pursue multiple goals, but their personality traits determine the relative importance of those goals. This theory is tested by analyzing the behavior of justices who served on the US Supreme Court between 1946 and 2015. Using recent advances in text-based personality measurement, Hall evaluates the influence of the 'big five' personality traits on the justices' behavior during each stage of the Court's decision-making process. What Justices Want shows that personality traits directly affect the justices' choices and moderate the influence of goal-related situational factors on justices' behavior.

1. Who they are and what they want
2. Goals and personality
3. Measuring justice personality
4. Agenda setting
5. Opinion assignments
6. Intra-court bargaining
7. Voting on the merits
8. Separate opinions
9. Behind the black robes
Appendices
Notes
Index.

Subject Areas: Legal system: general [LNA], Law & society [LAQ], Law [L], Central government [JPQ], Political science & theory [JPA], Politics & government [JP], Society & social sciences [J]