The Politics of Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judging on a Collegial Court: Influences on Federal Appellate Decision Making

Extract

The Politics of Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court. By Thomas G. Hansford and James F. Spriggs, II. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. 176p. $29.95.

Judging on a Collegial Court: Influences on Federal Appellate Decision Making. By Virginia A. Hettinger, Stefanie A. Lindquist, and Wendy L. Martinek. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2006. 192p. $39.50.

It is all too rare when books are more than the sum of their individual articles. Fortunately for scholars of judicial politics, both The Politics of Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judging on a Collegial Court are exactly that. Despite the fact that earlier incarnations of several chapters previously appeared in print, both books significantly improve upon the earlier analyses and make independent and important contributions to the literature on courts. In fact, some of the results presented in Precedent contradict previous research published by the authors (see, for example, p. 123).