1. Summary of Book and Argument
2. The Supreme Court and Elites
3. Elites, Ideology, and the Rise of the Modern Court
4. The Court in a Polarized World
5. Conclusions
Neal Devins is Sandra Day O'Connor Professor of Law and Professor
of Government at the College of William and Mary. He is the author
of numerous books and articles discussing the intersection of law
and politics, including The Democratic Constitution (Oxford 2015,
2nd edition) and articles in the Yale, Stanford, Columbia, Chicago,
Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and California law reviews. He
has also written opinion pieces for
Slate, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Wall Street
Journal.
Lawrence Baum is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Ohio
State University. He is the author of several books on judicial
decision making and other topics, including Ideology in the Supreme
Court (Princeton 2017), The Battle for the Court (Virginia 2017),
and Judges and Their Audiences (Princeton 2006). He has published
articles on a range of subjects in journals in political science
and law.
"Preserving [the Supreme Court's] independence has grown far more
difficult for reasons ably explored in Neal Devins and Lawrence
Baums' The Company They Keep, a carefully argued and disturbing
portrait of how partisan politics threaten to engulf the Court." --
New York Review of Books
"Drawing on the methodologies of social psychology and political
science, Professors Neal Devins and Lawrence Baum argue that the
ideological stances of Supreme Court Justices are informed by a
more subtle force than party loyalty or changing public norms...
Rather than framing the judiciary as politicians in robes, Devins
and Baum's analysis seeks to expose the Justices of the Supreme
Court as something perhaps more sinister - that is, as humans
seeking
validation." -- Harvard Law Review
"This fascinating book draws not only on political science and
legal scholarship but on social psychology to bring us important
new insights into the behavior of the Supreme Court justices whose
decisions shape our constitutional order."-Linda Greenhouse,
Lecturer, Yale Law School
"The Company They Keep is essential reading for anyone who wants to
understand today's Supreme Court. Drawing upon a wide range of
material from political science and American history, Neal Devins
and Lawrence Baum carefully explain how partisan polarization has
come to the Supreme Court. Their discussions of networks of legal
elites and of the Republican Party's somewhat more effective use of
those networks are particularly illuminating."-Mark
Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law
School
"In a fascinating new book titled The Company They Keep to be
published early next year, two prominent students of judicial
behavior, Neal Devins and Lawrence Baum, explore the Supreme
Court's current polarization through the lens of social
psychology...It's a fresh observation of an old phenomenon." -
Linda Greenhouse, The New York Times
"The Company They Keep breaks from the literature on Supreme Court
decision-making by describing judicial partisanship as a social
phenomenon -- a consequence, in part, of justices wanting approval
from their elite peers. Devins, a law professor at William & Mary,
and Baum, a political scientist at Ohio State, develop their
argument by importing insights from social psychology. Devins and
Baum put Supreme Court watchers on the right track by
focusing on the justices not simply as individuals, but as members
of teams that play in partisan political leagues... The Company
They Keep reminds us that today's Supreme Court justices, far from
calling balls and
strikes, are very much in the game. And they're playing to win."
-Mark A. Graber, Washington Monthly
"In the Company They Keep, Neal Devins and Lawrence Baum write an
compelling, elegant, and permanent addition to the political
science on the Court. In their view, the Court is substantially
more influenced by elite than by popular opinion. The great
strength of their book flows from arguments supported both by
theory and empirics." - John McGinnis, Balkinization
"[The Company They Keep is] a book we're reading. It examines the
elite social and political environment that surrounds justices and
makes the powerful point that the growth of the Federalist Society
has created a welcoming, reaffirming environment that helps
conservative justices from drifting to the left and that
contributed to the polarization of the court." - Marcia Coyle and
Tony Mauro, National Law Journal
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