When Politics and Law Collide
Ranking American Presidents from the Perspective of Their Policy towards the United States Supreme Court
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12797/AdAmericam.14.2013.14.06Abstract
Most scholars conducting research on the U.S. presidency analyze a particular presidency, ranking the ideology and political role of the chief executive, his rhetoric, interior policy program, foreign policy activity, and impact on the economy, as well as the role of the president as national commander of the armed forces. My main field of research is not the presidency, but the American judiciary. However, careful analysis of the theoretical and practical aspects of the functioning of American courts, and especially the U.S. Supreme Court, reveals the enormous impact of presidents on justice. Presidents nominate judges (and Supreme Court Justices), they may determine the scope of legal briefs presented in cases where the government is the party, and they can influence governmental participation as amicus curiae before the Court, which has become a vital tool of the United States in recent years.
The growing political role of the Supreme Court, its enormous activity in applying judicial review, and its high position within the U.S. governmental structure have not only caused changes to the checks‑and‑balances system, but, above all, have resulted in the increased political activity of various presidents towards the tribunal. As a result, many chief executives consider their ‘judicial policy’ as one of the most important elements of their legacy. From this perspective, we may rank presidents who had the greatest (or the least) impact on the membership and operation of the Court (i.e. Washington, F.D.R., Lincoln versus Taylor, Harrison, Carter), as well as presidents who were willing to impose revolutionary changes in American constitutional law and succeeded (F.D.R., J.F.K.) or failed (Reagan). Analysis of the amicus curiae participation of the U.S. Solicitor General before the Supreme Court can also rank presidents as more or less active in their judicial politics.
The aim of this paper is to show certain ranks of presidents with regard to their policy towards the Supreme Court, and also to present the ideological model which governed the majority of presidents in their politics towards the judiciary throughout U.S. history, leading to an ongoing clash of law and politics.
Downloads
References
Abraham, Henry J. The Judicial Process: An Introductory Analysis of the Courts of the United States, England and France. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Google Scholar
Abraham, Henry J. Justices, Presidents, and Senators, Revised: A History of the U.S. Supreme Court Appointments from George Washington to Bush II. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007.
Google Scholar
An Act to Establish the Judicial Courts of the United States. 1 Stat. 73, 1789.
Google Scholar
An Act to Amend the Judicial System of the United States, and to Change Certain Judicial Circuits. 14 Stat. 209, 1866.
Google Scholar
Alcoff, Linda Martin. “Sotomayor’s Reasoning.” The Southern Journal of Philosophy, vol. 48, issue 1, 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2041‑6962.2010.01005.x. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-6962.2010.01005.x
Google Scholar
Bickel, Alexander M. The Least Dangerous Branch: the Supreme Court at the Bar of Politics. Indianapolis: Bobbs‑Merril, 1962.
Google Scholar
Biographical Directory of Federal Judges. Federal Judicial Center. Web. 15 Dec. 2012. http://www.fjc.gov/public/home.nsf/hisj.
Google Scholar
Carney, Thomas E. “The Political Judge: Justice John McLean’s Pursuit of the Presidency.” Ohio History, vol. 111, 2002: 121‑144.
Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert. “Decision‑Making in a Democracy: The Supreme Court as the National Policy Maker.” Journal of Public Law, vol. 6, 1957.
Google Scholar
Funston, Richard. A Vital National Seminar: The Supreme Court in National Political Life. Palo Alto: Mayfield Publishing, 1978.
Google Scholar
Garlicki, Leszek. “Sędziowie Sądu Najwyższego Stanów Zjednoczonych”, [in:] Sokolewicz, Wojciech (ed.). Instytucje i doktryny prawno‑ polityczne Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki. Warszawa: Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1974.
Google Scholar
George H. W. Bush Press Conference. Kennebunkport, Maine, 1 July 1991. Web. 15 Dec. 2012. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29651#axzz1H8bM82Ii.
Google Scholar
Goldinger, Carolyn. The Supreme Court at Work. Washington D.C.: CQ Press, 1990.
Google Scholar
Heller, Francis H. (ed.). The Truman White House: The Administration of the Presidency, 1945‑1953. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1980. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17161/1808.32209
Google Scholar
Hodder‑Williams, Richard. The Politics of the United States Supreme Court. London: Allen and Unwin, 1980.
Google Scholar
Kalman, Laura. Abe Fortas: A Biography. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
Google Scholar
Laidler, Paweł. “Friends of the Court or Friends of Their Own Interests: Amicus Curiae as a Lobbying Tool of Groups of Interest in the U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision‑Making Process.” Ad Americam, vol. 11, 2010: 63‑78.
Google Scholar
Laidler, Paweł. Sąd Najwyższy Stanów Zjednoczonych Ameryki: od prawa do polityki. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2011.
Google Scholar
Leuchtenburg, Wiliam. The Supreme Court Reborn: The Constitutional Revolution in the Age of Roosevelt. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Google Scholar
Leuchtenburg, William E. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal: 1932‑ 1940. New York: Harper Perennial, 2009.
Google Scholar
MacKeever, Robert J. The U.S. Supreme Court: A Political and Legal Analysis. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Google Scholar
McHargue, Daniel S. “President Taft’s Appointments to the Supreme Court.” The Journal of Politics, vol. 12, 1950. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2126298. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2126298
Google Scholar
Milligan, Susan. “Personal Ties Bind Obama and Kagan. President Joins Ranks of Picking Friend for Court.” The Boston Globe 16 May 2010. Web. 15 Dec. 2012. http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2010/05/16/personal_ties_bind_obama_kagan/.
Google Scholar
Newmyer, R. Kent. The Supreme Court Under Marshall and Taney. New York: Harlan Davidson Inc., 2006.
Google Scholar
Nowak, John E., Rotunda, Ronald D. Constitutional Law. St. Paul: West Group, Minnesota, 2000.
Google Scholar
Reagan, Ronald. “Remarks Announcing the Intention to Nominate Sandra Day O’Connor to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.” Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States 7 July 1981, Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1981.
Google Scholar
“Reagan Aims Fire at Liberal Judges.” New York Times 9 October 1986: A32.
Google Scholar
Remini, Robert V. The Life of Andrew Jackson. New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 1984.
Google Scholar
Rosen, Jeffrey. The Supreme Court. The Personalities and Rivalries that Defined America. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2007.
Google Scholar
Schaetzel, Wendy, Pertschuk, Michael. The People Rising: The Campaign Against the Bork Nomination. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1989.
Google Scholar
Schwartz, Herman. Packing the Courts: The Conservative Campaign to Rewrite the Constitution. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1988.
Google Scholar
Scigliano, Robert. The Supreme Court and the Presidency. New York: Free Press, 1971.
Google Scholar
Simon, Paul. Advice and Consent: Clarence Thomas, Robert Bork and the Intriguing History of the Supreme Court Nomination Battles. Washington D.C.: National Press Books, 1992.
Google Scholar
Tribe, Laurence. God Save This Honorable Court: How Choice of the Supreme Court Justices Shapes Our History. New York: Random House, 1985.
Google Scholar
Urofsky, Melvin I. The Supreme Court Justices. A Biographical Dictionary. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1994. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203820049
Google Scholar
Watson, George, Stookey, John. Shaping America: The Politics of Supreme Court Appointments. New York: Harper Collins College Publications, 1995.
Google Scholar
Whittington, Keith E., “The Burger Court (1969‑1986): Once More in Transition,” [in:] Tomlins, Christopher (ed.). The United States Supreme Court: The Pursuit of Justice. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005.
Google Scholar
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2013 Paweł Laidler
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
