The Federal Judiciary

In this assignment, you will compare and contrast different modes of reasoning by the federal judiciary members.

Go to the Oyez website and click on the Justices link. You can click on any justices to get biographical information, such as how long they served, which president appointed them, and other information. Note who appointed the justices and the length of time that these justices served on the Court. You can click on Opinions from each justice site to read the arguments written by individual justices.

Another way to examine the Court’s influence on public policy is to investigate a series of cases dealing with a particular public policy issue: abortion. From the homepage, click the search bar in the top right corner and search for the cases you may want to examine, such as Roe v. Wade, Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey. Consider how the Court’s position has changed since 1973.

(For example, note that former chief justice William H. Rehnquist was involved in the abovementioned cases over 20 years. Was he ever in the majority? Did his views change?)

After reading the example cases, write a 3- to 5-page paper that addresses the following:

• Select two decided cases on the same public policy issue and compare and contrast the majority opinion with the minority dissent for both cases.
• Does the time that someone has served on the Court matter?
• Does public opinion influence the opinions of the justices?
• Has the Court’s opinion changed on the issue over time?