Fluidity on the Supreme Court: 1956-1967

Abstract

Howard (1968) speaks of extensive fluidity in vote and language on the U.S. Supreme Court. In my earlier analysis, based upon Justice Harold Burton's docket books, I compared the original vote on the merits in conference with the final decision vote in the 1946 to 1956 period and found considerable stability in voting. I examined both strong fluidity (i.e., a shift from reverse to affirm or from affirm to reverse) and weak fluidity (a switch from nonparticipation to affirm or reverse or vice versa). Now that the University of Texas Law Library has opened Justice Tom Clark's docket books, I can test whether the results of my earlier study hold for the post-Burton part of Clark's service-the 1956 to 1967 period.'

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