:“By entering what he previously had warned was a ‘political thicket,’ Frankfurter wrote that the Court hadn’t learned from self-inflicted trauma.” Without mentioning Dred Scott or Lochner, he said Baker was ‘a massive repudiation of the experiences of our whole past in asserting destructively novel judicial power’” (Kaplan, 179).
(A) Explain what Justice Frankfurter meant with this statement, and how this interacts with the major theories of judicial decision-making. Do theories of judicial behavior argue judges enter the “political thicket?” If so, how? If not, how not? Use the major theories discussed in class to make your point (1-2 paragraphs). According to Kaplan, should the Court have intervened in Bush v. Gore? Was the ruling in this case another example of the Court entering the “political thicket” that Frankfurter had warned about? Why or why not?
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