Lawyers' Effect on the US Supreme Court

Lawyers' Effect on the US Supreme Court

Abstract

It has been observed for many decades that attorneys with high level of expertise enjoy higher success rates in litigation, as compared to the less experienced attorneys. This is mainly due to the fact that justices highly rely on the information which is generated during the oral argument. The judicial decision making process may also vary depending on the culture and biases present in any society. The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of attorneys on the judicial decision making of the US Supreme Court. The paper presents an extensive literature review describing the points that support the topic. The research would include some example cases of US Supreme Court for elaborating that how do the decisions of US Supreme Court affect by the judicial politics and role of attorneys.

Literature Review

The fundamental judicial decision making model is based on the point that the justices make their decisions logically and rationally (Drobak and North, 2008). For efficient decision making process, the justices rely on the previous decisions takes under the same situations, the public policy guidelines, the judicial norms and rules, and constitutions. However, there are various factors which are not included in the well defined model or list of factors. For example, the influences of oral argument, attorney expertise, gender bias, emotions and many other factors on the judicial decision making process are not presented in literature as a well defined structure.

At present, much of the researchers' attention has been drawn toward determining the factors which influence judicial outcomes and decision making process. In addition to well defined norms and rules used for judicial decision making, there is another important factor, the oral argument which can significantly affect the judicial decision. The quality of oral argument is definitely based on the attorney's expertise, but may depend on additional factors. During oral argument, the judge becomes able to collect information about the case, and make the decision accordingly (Timothy, et.al, 2005). Clearly, the oral arguments have the tendency to change the judge's point of view, as the lack of knowledge in absence of arguments may result in different judicial decisions.

Like all the other courts, judges of Supreme Courts are also influenced by the oral arguments, and hence, by the attorneys. These Justices often face uncertain situations, and need information to analyze the case. They can apply the judicial norms and rules only after collecting enough information of the case, main source for which is the oral argument. For oral arguments, the attorneys appear in the court to provide information which would help the cause of their client. They present the issues as clear as possible, and relationship between the existing laws and issues (if any). Many researchers are agreed on the fact that during oral arguments, the court systems and justices record the information, and then depending on the collected information, they make choices of policy (Johnson, 2001). Researchers of Psychology also argue that ...