The Law of the Land

The Supreme Court: October Term, 1955

It has been persuasively asserted by such diverse authorities as Chief Justice Hughes, Chief Justice Stone, Thomas Jefferson, Louis B. Boudin, Prof. Fred Rodell and Sen. James O. Eastland, among many others, that the policy concepts, or “personal predilections,” of Supreme Court justices influence their decisions. Such assertions are made with special vigor when it is apparent that the Court has determined an issue not in accordance with any very clear and definite constitutional or statutory provisions, or judicial precedent, that the arguments on one side are pretty much as good as those on the other, and that a large measure of discretion resting on policy as distinct from strictly legal considerations has been or may have been involved. If the Court divides in a series of cases of public interest and importance in which these factors are present, with one set of justices continually on one side and another set in dissent, historically a public agitation has developed.

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C. Dickerman Williams

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The Supreme Court: October Term, 1955

It has been persuasively asserted by such diverse authorities as Chief Justice Hughes, Chief Justice Stone, Thomas Jefferson, Louis B. Boudin, Prof. Fred Rodell and Sen. James O. Eastland, among many others, that the policy concepts, or “personal predilections,” of Supreme Court justices influence their decisions. Such assertions are made with special vigor when it is apparent that the Court has determined an issue not in accordance with any very clear and definite constitutional or statutory provisions, or judicial precedent, that the arguments on one side are pretty much as good as those on the other, and that a large measure of discretion resting on policy as distinct from strictly legal considerations has been or may have been involved. If the Court divides in a series of cases of public interest and importance in which these factors are present, with one set of justices continually on one side and another set in dissent, historically a public agitation has developed.