In making his televised announcement on the nominations of Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist for seats on the Supreme Court, Richard Nixon observed that he was merely fulfilling a campaign promise. For, he said: “… during my campaign for the Presidency, I pledged to nominate to the Supreme Court individuals who shared my judicial philosophy which is basically a conservative philosophy. … As a judicial conservative, I believe some Court decisions have gone too far in the past in weakening the peace forces as against the criminal forces in our society” (New York Times, 1971: 24C). In 1968, Mr. Nixon said: ”We need more strict constructionists on the highest court of the United States. In my view, the duty of a Justice of the Supreme Court is to interpret the law, not to make the law, and the men I support will share that view“ (U.S. News & World Report, 1968: 42).

United States courts of appeals were created over four decades ago to help the Supreme Court enforce the supremacy' and uniformity of federal law. Until recently, however, their actual operations and functions in the American polity have received scant description and analysis (Carington, 1969: 542; Dolbeare, 1969: 373-404; Goldman and Jahnige, 1971; Richardson and Vines, 1970; Schick, 1970). This paper is a preliminary report of data gathered to assess the roles of the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Second, and Fifth Circuits in the federal legal system.' The report will: (1) describe the business of the three tribunals, (2) compare decisional patterns among them and the Supreme Court in the same cases, and (3) explore relationships among trial courts, intermediate courts, and the Supreme Court in the flow of federal litigation.

Excessive drinking is involved in over one-half of the motor vehicle associated fatalities in the United States (Department of Transportation, 1968). Various means have been suggested, and some tried, to curb these losses. In only a few cases have countermeasures against driving while intoxicated been subjected to scientifically acceptable evaluation as to effectiveness.

In one such study, Barmack and Payne (1964b) used an information program with administrative review and psychiatric referral in an attempt to reduce alcohol-related crashes by airmen at an Air Force base. Based on their earlier studies (1964a) showing various types of stress-related and deviant behavior associated with driving while intoxicated, the image of the intoxicated driver as "sick" was communicated in meetings, on bulletin boards, and in the base newspaper. Airmen who lost time because of injury in a privately-owned vehicle had their service records reviewed, and evidence of "ineffective behavior" could result in discharge or psychiatric referral. The psychiatrist could then recommend a medical discharge, suggest psychiatric therapy, or take no action.

A considerable amount of conflict has been generated over the selection of legal standards for legislative apportionment. Prior to 1962, seats in state legislatures were generally assigned to counties. In some houses of some state legislatures, a limited number of additional seats were given to the most populated districts. Population (size) was seldom used, however, either as the sole basis for designing districts or as the sole basis for determining the number of seats for given districts. With the development of the social force of urbanization, a limited number of counties became the residence for a majority of the citizens. Since state legislatures continued to operate with counties as the fundamental unit of legislative apportionment, significant differences in the population of districts were created.

When Ralph Nader addressed the 35th Annual Meeting of the State Bar of Michigan in September 1970, he said, “Anybody who talks to law students today sees a tremendous difference between their concepts, aspirations, and indignation levels and the law students of yesteryear.” Nader's views on this occasion have been shared by other members of the bench and bar as well as by social and political commentators whose opinions appear regularly in the mass media. They claim that one of the by-products of the social turmoil and the subsequent new politics that emerged at the end of the sixties was a shift by a large proportion of the recent law graduates into careers that involved protection of civil rights and civil liberties, defense of indigents, protection of consumers, and affiliation with inner city citizens' groups that seek basic changes in welfare policies, taxation, housing, and so forth. For a fuller discussion of this issue by members of the legal profession, see Yale Law Journal (1970), McGovagle (1970), and Riley (1970).

Political scientists have in recent years been focusing more of their attention on compliance with Supreme Court decisions. Of course, with rare exceptions, the Supreme Court does not issue orders directly; rather it announces broad policies in the form of opinions. Detailed interpretation and application of these policies are, insofar as the judicial system is concerned at least, left to other courts. Thus those interested in the nature of compliance with Supreme Court policies must explore the manner in which lower courts handle the high court decisions.

One of the ironies of police-community relations is that the high visibility via the mass media of public reaction against police has created the impression that public attitudes are predominantly negative. Evidence from field surveys suggests the opposite—that attitudes are predominantly positive and supportive of police (Gourley, 1954; Cleaver, et al., 1966; Preiss and Ehrlich, 1966; Ennis, 1967; McCaghy, et al., 1968; Bayley and Mendelsohn, 1969; Smith, 1969). In a similar vein, police often view citizens as holding more hostile attitudes toward the police than is in fact the case (McNamara, 1967: 221; Wilson, 1968: 28; Bayley and Mendelsohn, 1969). This shared misunderstanding can have self-fulfilling consequences. Police expect a hostile citizen reception and hence take a more authoritarian attitude in order to assure that actions will be seen as legitimate and authority will not be questioned (Westley, 1953; Skolnick, 1966: 62; Werthman and Piliavin, 1967). The public, expecting the worst from the police, may alter their perceptions so that criticisms of police behavior are more likely. This shared misunderstanding produces more conflict between citizen and police. Instances of police brutality are covered by the media, and the cycle continues.

I am writing in reaction to the article by Spaeth, Meltz, Rathjen and Haselswerdt, “Is Justice Blind: An Empirical Investigation of a Normative Ideal,” which appeared in vol. 7, no. 1. The authors attempt to support the Aristotelian myth that blind justice can systematically obtain. The premise in the myth is fallacious, and confirmation of the authors' research hypothesis in three of their five data sets cannot therefore be an adequate basis for concluding that justice is blind in the cases comprising the three sets.

I am writing in reaction to the article by Spaeth, Meltz, Rathjen and Haselswerdt, “Is Justice Blind: An Empirical Investigation of a Normative Ideal,” which appeared in vol. 7, no. 1. The authors attempt to support the Aristotelian myth that blind justice can systematically obtain. The premise in the myth is fallacious, and confirmation of the authors' research hypothesis in three of their five data sets cannot therefore be an adequate basis for concluding that justice is blind in the cases comprising the three sets.