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Strategies for Judicial Research: Soaking and Poking in the Judiciary: Further Reflections on Working in the Papers of Supreme Court Justices

NCJ Number
122353
Journal
Judicature Volume: 73 Issue: 4 Dated: (December-January 1990) Pages: 193-196
Author(s)
S S Ulmer
Date Published
1990
Length
4 pages
Annotation
While the private papers of Supreme Court justices can provide information not available elsewhere, they can also be self-serving and misleading in their assessments.
Abstract
Supreme Court justices and their families and associates have not hesitated to destroy written reports of judicial conferences and to leave notes intended to rewrite history. Researchers must be aware, then, that collections of judicial manuscripts do not always provide valid representations of a justice's values, attitudes, or behavior. Researchers themselves often decide not to publish evidence of questionable judicial behavior, thus providing their own distortions. Manuscripts and notes are often helpful to scholars in formulating hypotheses, but not in verifying facts or theories. 18 footnotes.

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