PSCI 4396 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: American Constitution Society, Federalist Society, Legal Realism
9 Apr 2016
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At its best, allows us to abstract or pull out the essence of what we"re modeling. Paired down representation of what is really happening. Not intended to be complete descriptions of reality. The more parsimonious the model is, the better. There are always going to be exceptions to the model. Explicitly rejected the then dominant model of mechanical jurisprudence. Basically said this is bullshit, this isn"t how things are decided. Oliver wedel holmes even said this isn"t how he decided cases. Judges bring a set of beliefs and use them to ll in gaps in the law. Judges vote the way they do due to their policy preferences. Scalia voted how he voted because he is conservative, rbg votes because she is liberal. Judge reaches decision: facts + policy preferences = outcome. Judges on the supreme court vote before they write an opinion. All judges will back up conclusions in legal language.
