Southern State Supreme Courts and Race Relations

Abstract

A EADING CHARACTERISTIC of the American political process is the frequent participation of courts in policy-making. The dramatic decisions of the Supreme Court are familiar landmarks in the literature of political history, but much less familiar are the decisions made by lower federal courts and by the state and local courts. While we have a good estimate of the impact of Supreme Court decisions in the political process, the political significance of the cases decided in other courts is largely unknown. Each year thousands of cases are decided in the lower federal courts and in the hundreds of state and local courts. Undoubtedly a major portion of these decisions, like the majority of the bills passed in Congress and in the state legislatures, has little political importance. But lack of knowledge of decision-making in the lower federal and the state and local courts makes difficult any assessment of the roles of these courts in their respective political systems. We cannot generalize our knowledge concerning the Supreme Court, necessarily, to the operation of other courts. Judges in lower courts may not follow the same patterns of behavior; lower courts may not make decisions according to similar judicial procedures nor fulfill the same functions in the political system. While other courts may be subject to some of the same legal influences that affect the Supreme Court, they clearly are involved with political factors in their peculiar environments. Neither can we generalize our knowledge of other political institutions such as the legislature to the operation of courts. Such factors as training in legal values, the distinctive methods of recruitment of officials to the courts, and the varied degrees of insulation of the courts from the political system emphasize that we must accumulate concepts and knowledge appropriate to courts and court officials to increase our knowledge of the judiciary. Although the literature of political science has described mainly the role of national courts (especially the Supreme Court), state and local courts undoubtedly also make decisions of political import; for they all have much the same potential for affecting policy outcomes. Not only can they exercise judicial review and extensively interpret statutes and constitutions, but they are easily accessible for lobbying by litigation. State courts in the state political process, like courts on the national level, provide points of access at which opinions and pressures may be presented, and at which societal values may be maintained and social changes resisted or facilitated. Furthermore, interest stymied elsewhere in the political process may turn to the state courts.