BIOL 206 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Naacp Legal Defense And Educational Fund, Sonia Sotomayor, Southern Strategy
Document Summary
Judiciary: belief that courts are not political -- myth of judicial objectivity , courts are political institutions that make public policy, politics are the authoritative allocation of values, courts and judges inevitably influenced by political considerations. But there are certain public expectations: prestigious legal training, smart, wise, and honest: electoral politics only one type of politics, why politics influences judicial appointments, patronage considerations: spoils system, merit system. Federal judge is a great job: high power, high status, high income, job security. Pool of highly qualified including democrats and republicans, liberals and conservatives. Little incentive to reward opponents with such a great job: policy considerations. Party and ideology: president appoints justices who share his party and ideology: table 1: political party influence on supreme court appointments, geography: often a concern in 1900"s, supreme court justices had to. Non-religious: race and ethnicity, first african american justice: thurgood marshall (1967), worked for the naacp legal defense fund and worked towards brown v.
