Greece Vs Galloway Attitudinal Model

Introduction and Thesis Throughout American history, there has been much controversy concerning the Establishment Clause written in the First Amendment. The Establishment Clause prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion”. Therefore the government is not allowed to establish an official religion for the nation and is not allowed to favor one religious belief over another one. In 2014, the case of the Town of Greece v. Galloway made its way to the Supreme Court with issues of legislative prayer. In the town of Greece, town meetings began with a moment of silence, but in 1999, the town began the process of public prayer before meetings. Galloway’s side argued that the town’s process for selecting

Galloway, evidence that supports each of the four models of judicial decision-making can be found. However, the justices ultimately appropriated legal precedent to fit their own personal values and attitudes, making their final votes reflect the attitudinal model.

The 4 Models of Judicial Decision Making When the Supreme Court rules on a case, the legal implications are substantial for the whole nation. In order to understand how and why the Supreme Court justices behave the way they do, political scientists have developed four models of decision-making. In this section, I aim to define all four models of judicial decision-making and attempt to show evidence that supports each model. The four models are the legal, attitudinal, societal, and strategic models.

1) The Legal Model The legal model of judicial decision-making is the optimal model and suggests that decisions are based on the facts of the case and the rule of law. This means that the Supreme Court will rely on textual meanings, the Framers’ intent of the Constitution, and precedent. This model assumes that there is a right and wrong decision. The right and correct decision is one that falls within the context of the law while the wrong decision is

This is not the ideal model of decision-making, but is almost unavoidable in that everyone has biases and it is very difficult to completely ignore ones biases. Instead of deciding cases based on the intention of legal texts or precedent, the attitudinal model focuses on personal or ideological preference. In the case of town of Greece v. Galloway, the final decision was 5-4 with Justice Kennedy supporting the town’s side while Justice Kagan headed Galloway’s side. Each side shared commonalities that may have caused a biased decision in the final ruling. The way that each judge viewed “the government’s role in accommodating religious plagiarism” was the focus of the case and seemed to be the deciding factor in voting. Kennedy emphasized the importance of a long history of tradition while Kagan emphasized the importance of fairness to the minority group and religions.

3) The Societal