Appellate Recruitment Patterns in the Higher British Judiciary: 1850 - 1990 Page: 18
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literature focuses heavily on the impact of party identification and political ideology in
explaining judicial recruitment. Implicit or explicit in the analysis is that ideology, or
attitudes, impacts judicial decision making. Much of the recruitment literature is bound
up in the impact of judicial selection to the greater issue of judicial decision making.
For example, in Segal and Spaeth's classic work, The Supreme Court and the
Attitudinal Model, 7 the authors' devote a chapter to "Staffing the Court," primarily as a
prelude to the decision making chapters (Segal and Spaeth 1993, 125-159). They
conclude that although they cannot predict nominees with accuracy, they can predict the
ideology of the nominees. "In short, that ideology will be a function of the President's
ideology, the ideological composition of the Senate, and the ideological makeup to the
Supreme Court" (Ibid, 159). Ideology, they find, is central to both the president's
selection and the Senate's confirmation (Ibid).
Segal and Spaeth note, however, that both presidents and senators have multiple
goals which they attempt to satisfy with nominees. "Simple partisanship," they
acknowledge, "paints an incomplete picture" (Ibid, 127). In addition to ideological
compatibility, patronage also is an important consideration. In some instances, patronage
may be more important than ideology (Ibid, 159). Furthermore, some presidents are more
ideologically motivated in their selections than others. Therefore, for example, Tate and
Handberg (1991), in developing their personal attributes model of Supreme Court
decision making, incorporate an index of the appointing President's intentions, which
7 Selected other examples include: Hensley and Smith, Membership Change and Voting Change: An
Analysis of the Rehnquist Court's 1986-1991 Terms, 48(4) Political Research Quarterly 837 (1995); Baum,
Membership Change and Collective Voting Change in the United States Supreme Court, 54(1) Journal of
Politics 3 (1992); Roland, Carp, and Stidham, Judges' Policy Choices and the Value Basis of Judicial
Appointments: A Comparison of Support for Criminal Defendants among Nixon, Johnson, and Kennedy
Appointees to the Federal District Courts, 46 Journal of Politics 886 (1984).18
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Thomas, Bruce K. Appellate Recruitment Patterns in the Higher British Judiciary: 1850 - 1990, dissertation, December 2004; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4650/m1/27/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .