John R. Schmidhauser

Judicial Behavior and the Sectional Crisis of 1837–1860

THE CENTRAL THESIS OF this study is that the voting responses of the members of the Supreme Court of the United States to issues arising in periods of national stress may provide significant evidence concerning the relative influence upon the decision-making process of factors as disparate as the background of the justices and the traditions of the venerable institution of which these individuals had become a part. In addition, the responses of the Court as an institution to issues related to such crises can. provide data for the systematic comparison of these judicial responses with the responses of the President and the Congress to similar or identical issues. And, finally, intensive analysis of the roles played by the justices acting as individuals or in groups may provide insight concerning their behavior as participants in a highly institutionalized small group process. Initial emphasis in the study will be given to the problem of the significance of background factors.

3. Scaling Supreme Court Decisions in Relation to Social Background

A pilot project to scale, if possible, the votes of justices on sectional issues in the pre-Civil War period according to their personal sectional background. Method might be expanded to other traits, classes of issues, time periods, and court systems.