Circuit Court Judges Decision Making

Some judicial scholars, alongside popular belief, suspect that the political affiliation of judges has a great influence in their judgments. Based on the level of judiciary hierarchy, this relationship can have different effect on decision making process. ‘In what manner’ or ‘for what purpose’ questions always follow the every judge’s decision. Others view judges as politically independent decision makers. This group believe that judges’ decisions are guaranteed by statutes, standards, and constitutional requirements. According to many research, federal judges entitled lifetime tenure and don’t have re-election concern, therefore they make decisions based on their personal philosophies and ideologies (Savchak and Barghothi, 2007). However, in studying circuit court decision making, traditional legal theory and the attitudinal model are problematic when one considers that most circuit court judges take and retain office at the will of another political actor. Circuit court judges' desires to achieve and hold office allow the possibility of the influence from other actors such as winning majority and their party affiliation. I would like to review different school of thoughts in regard to this controversial and widely debated subject. …show more content…
Even though judges are public officials and eventually should hold their loyalty to the people. However, judge's orientation toward the legislatures varies depending on the type of case and level of scrutiny the judge apply is their decision making. Bruhl and Leib from University of Chicago argue that “developing a satisfactory account of the interpretive duties and opportunities of elected judges is becoming increasingly pressing given developments in state judicial elections.” (p.