Segal And Spaeth's Attitudinal Model

A strategy of decision making that stood out to me when taking this class is when we talked about Segal and Spaeth’s attitudinal model. We talked about this model in terms of the Supreme Court Justices and how they resolve cases on the basis of facts and their attitudes. I found it the most interesting because it is perhaps the one I agree with the most. In legal 250 one of the things we talked about is that judges and their decisions could be based on how their mornings went or how close it is to lunch. From this, we discussed that the ideological views of the judge and his policy preferences can have more effect on his decision making than the law. In Judges and Judging it is also important to note that we learned that judges decisions are

shaped by their experiences and their environment. I believe the example we used in class was if a judge was to have a kid then his or her outlook on a particular issue could change. This model also allows others some insight on how a judge might rule. We can conceptualize any case on any ideological spectrum and perhaps put the thought of the judge on that spectrum. The decisions of two liberal judges will follow a similar pattern, while there will be a difference in the behavior and rulings of a liberal and a conservative.