{"id":10563,"date":"2010-06-23T15:30:56","date_gmt":"2010-06-23T20:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=10563"},"modified":"2010-06-23T15:30:56","modified_gmt":"2010-06-23T20:30:56","slug":"judges-take-the-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2010\/06\/judges-take-the-stand\/","title":{"rendered":"Judges Take the Stand"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Chad Oldfather <\/a>has a new paper\u00a0on SSRN<\/a>\u00a0reviewing William Domnarski’s book Federal Judges Revealed<\/em>.\u00a0 Not exactly the lurid expos\u00e9 suggested by the title, Domnarski’s book synthesizes the insights he gained from reviewing more than 100 oral histories given by federal judges to different interviewers over a period of many years.\u00a0 As Chad notes, oral histories have the potential to add much to our understanding of the judiciary, for\u00a0judges are generally\u00a0less guarded about their personal views and experiences in these interviews than in their written opinions.\u00a0 On the other hand, as a drawback to oral history, Chad notes that there is no clearly established, rigorous methodology for taking an oral history.\u00a0 That may be one reason that Domnarski’s book apparently lacks any really surprising insights into the federal judiciary.<\/p>\n

As one of the more interesting aspects of the book, Chad highlights Domnarski’s treatment of the role of judicial clerks: “Federal Judges Revealed <\/em>provides valuable testimony from judges regarding how they use their clerks, and how much they depend on them.”\u00a0 For instance, one judge says, “[M]any of [my clerks] have an ability to grasp technical details and relationships that entirely escape me.\u00a0 Let’s face it; I try to get clerks who are significantly brighter than I am.”\u00a0 Some may find such statements about the importance of clerks\u00a0a bit troubling —\u00a0one might\u00a0question who is really in charge, the presidentially appointed judge or the fresh-out-of-law-school clerk.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I wonder, though, to what extent the judges giving the oral histories were being overly modest about their own roles in an effort to\u00a0give a “shout-out” to\u00a0their hard-working clerks, with whom many maintain\u00a0mentoring relationships long after the clerkship is over.\u00a0 Perhaps the judges\u00a0would have expressed themselves differently had they known the oral histories would one day be used as the\u00a0basis for a scholarly monograph on the judiciary like Domnarski’s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In any event, long-time members of the Wisconsin legal community may find a different aspect of Chad’s paper particularly interesting: his review of three oral histories given by Judge Thomas Fairchild (pictured above), who served on the Wisconsin Supreme Court from 1957 until 1966 and on the Seventh Circuit from 1966 until 2007.\u00a0 Chad took an independent look at the Fairchild interviews, which are unpublished, in order to get a better sense of the strengths and weaknesses of oral histories as a way to study the judiciary.\u00a0 Of particular interest is Farichild’s explanations about why he left the Wisconsin Supreme Court for the Seventh Circuit.<\/p>\n

Entitled “Oral History and the Study of the Judiciary,” Chad’s paper was published at 78 George Washington Law Review Arguendo <\/em>A-101 (2010).<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chad Oldfather has a new paper\u00a0on SSRN\u00a0reviewing William Domnarski’s book Federal Judges Revealed.\u00a0 Not exactly the lurid expos\u00e9 suggested by the title, Domnarski’s book synthesizes the insights he gained from reviewing more than 100 oral histories given by federal judges to different interviewers over a period of many years.\u00a0 As Chad notes, oral histories have 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