The Company They Keep: How Partisan Divisions Came to the Supreme Court

by Lawrence Baum, Neal Devins

Are Supreme Court justices swayed by the political environment that surrounds them? Most people think "yes," and they point to the influence of the general public and the other branches of government on the Court. It is not that simple, however.

As the eminent law and politics scholars Neal Devins and Lawrence Baum show in The Company They Keep , justices today are reacting far more to subtle social forces in their own elite legal world than to pressure from the other branches of government or mass public opinion. In particular, the authors draw from social psychology research to show why Justices are apt to follow the lead of the elite social networks that they are a part of. The evidence is strong: Justices take cues primarily from the people who are closest to them and whose approval they care most about: political, social, and professional elites. In an era of strong partisan polarization, elite social networks are largely bifurcated by partisan and ideological loyalties, and the Justices reflect that division. The result is a Court in which the Justices' ideological stances reflect the dominant views in the appointing president's party. Justices such as Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg live largely in a milieu
populated by like-minded elites. Today's partisanship on the Court also stems from the emergence of conservative legal networks such as the Federalist Society, that reinforce the conservative leanings of Republican appointees. For the Warren and Burger Courts, elite social networks were dominated by liberal elites and not divided by political party or ideology. A fascinating examination of the factors that shape decision-making, The Company They Keep will reshape our understanding of how political polarization occurs on the contemporary Supreme Court.

Genres: Politics, Law, American History, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published February 6, 2019

Reviews

[Christian Dibblee · Rating 3 out of 5]

The authors set out a very interesting theory that I personally think is probably correct. Justices are very likely to listen closely to the groups from which they originate. The issue is I am not so sure that can be definitively proven beyond anecdotal evidence. This book suffers from that. I also thought the authors could have better focused on the judicial philosophy of the Justices rather than their ideologies. I think the difference between those two things might be significant for their theory and buttress it.

[Meggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Devins and Baum present an interesting addition to the literature on Supreme Court politics. Their theory that justices are swayed by the elite audiences to which they answer and with which they socialize is both intuitive and novel. I might have liked to see more discussions of issues with causal inference rather than qualifications that their theory does not account for all variation in the justices’ ideological movement. Overall a fascinating and digestible book.

[Geoff Walling · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good history of the Supreme Court and how it has changed over the years.