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Supreme Court May Have Too Many Judges

Is the High Court Too 'Judgey'?

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 16, 2009 4:30 PM CST

(Newser) – Chief Justice John Roberts recently praised the present makeup of the Supreme Court, which, for the first time in history, consists only of former federal appeals judges. The move towards a Court dominated by those with judicial experience has been afoot since the 1950s, writes Adam Liptak in the New York Times, but not all watchers think it’s a good thing.

“The correlation between prior judicial experience and fitness for the functions of the Supreme Court is zero,” wrote former justice Felix Frankfurter in 1957. And a recent UPenn study showed no difference in decisions made by former judges and “justices lacking judicial experience.” Perhaps another figure is more disturbing: Only three Supreme Court judges have been appointed without private practice experience—and they're all on the bench now.

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Members of the U.S. Supreme Court. (AP Photo)

Chief Justice John Roberts. (AP Photo)

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Reasonable people, not merely here but in Europe, think that many civil law judicial systems simply do not command the respect and enjoy the independence of ours. - Chief Justice William Rehnquist, on systems that professionalize the high court

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Supreme Court May Have Too Many Judges