Thou Shalt Not Sit with Statisticians, Nor Commit a Social Science

Debates concerning federal courts' performance in voting rights and redistricting controversies have proceeded along two paths: (1) analyses of case law and (2) studies of how judicial decisions affect minority representation. These debates, however, have lacked a focused analysis of how judicial policy-making limitations might affect courts' ability to formulate voting rights policy. While it is important to ask whether and how courts should intervene, an overlooked and related question asks whether courts are capable of effective intervention into a process as complex and consequential as redistricting. Scholars of judicial policy-making capacity can be roughly divided into two camps. One camp is skeptical that judges can be effective policymakers. In this view, judges' training as generalists, their limited fact-finding capabilities, and various institutional constraints hinder judges' ability to formulate comprehensive policy (Horowitz 1977; Fuller 1978, 394-404). Skeptics also point to the judiciary's dependence on other governmental actors to ensure compliance with judicial holdings (Bickel 1962; Rosenberg 1991). The other camp argues that the limitations attributed to courts have been overstated, particularly with regard to judges' ability to overcome informational shortcomings (Rebell and Block 1982) and the unrepresentativeness of third parties (Barker 1967). Furthermore, detachment from electoral pressures gives appointed judges some advantages as policymakers (Chayes 1976; Fiss 1979). Rather than assess these perspectives in toto, this paper addresses one consideration related to judicial policy-making capacity: the ability of judges to evaluate complex quantitative social science evidence. The analysis focuses on the inquiries into racially polarized voting that underpin legal chal

Commit · Intervention (counseling · Judicial opinion · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Redistricting · Skepticism · Sociology · Voting · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Law, Rights, and Freedoms · Legal and Constitutional Studies · Psychology

• The Role of the Courts in the Development and Implementation of the Idea

  Elizabeth Palley•Social Service Review•2003

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• The Role of the Judge in Public Law Litigation

  Abram Chayes•Harvard Law Review•1976

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• The Forms and Limits of Adjudication

  Lon L Fuller, Kenneth I Winston et al.•Harvard Law Review•1978

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• The Hollow Hope

  Gerald N Rosenberg•The Hollow Hope•1993

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• Third Parties in Litigation

  Lucius J Barker•The Journal of Politics•1967

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