| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
Ghostwriters on the Court?A Stylistic Analysis of U.S. Supreme Court Opinion DraftsGeorge Washington University
University of California, Davis
George Washington University A common refrain among Supreme Court watchers is that today it is law clerks who are primarily responsible for drafting the justicesopinions. We search for traces of clerical drafting—identifiable stylistic "fingerprints"—in the first drafts of the opinions that two justices, Lewis F. Powell Jr., and Thurgood Marshall, circulated during the 1985 term of the Court. These two justices relied on their clerks to a different degree: Powells office procedures called for him and several clerks to participate in writing each opinion, whereas Marshall reputedly delegated most writing responsibilities to his clerks. We do detect the clerks distinct styles in the justices opinions, though; as expected, the fingerprints are clearer for Marshalls clerks than for Powells. We also find differences across opinion type, with the clerksunique style most easily discernible in separate opinions, as opposed to majority opinions.
American Politics Research, Vol. 30, No. 2,
166-192 (2002) |
|||