Introduction to the Symposium

Abstract

AbstractThis issue of theJournal of Law and Courtsfeatures articles devoted to measuring the personality traits of US Supreme Court justices. In this brief comment, I attempt to do the following. First, I briefly summarize Hall et al. (2021) and Black et al. (2021). Here I pay special attention to some of the methodological issues that give rise to the disagreement between these authors. Second, I provide some general thoughts on the enterprise of attempting to measure personality traits of US Supreme Court justices. While I am generally skeptical of the utility of such an enterprise, I could be convinced of its value. Accordingly, I attempt to lay out what a skeptic like myself would like to see in order to be convinced of the intellectual value added of work in this area.