Judicial policy effectiveness depends on judges understanding the social processes they seek to change

Evidence

Hospitals, it turned out, were not crucial to the success of Roe. When they refused to perform abortions, medical clinics were opened to meet the demand. These alternative institutions developed because of the financial incentive for providing abortions. Ironically, neither abortion reformers nor the justices foresaw how critical clinics would be. Indeed, the issue of where abortions were to be performed was ignored in the briefs submitted by the parties in Roe and was addressed only briefly in Justice Blackmun’s opinion for the Court. In that sense, the success of Roe was as much the result of chance as of planning. Ultimately, the effectiveness of judicial policies may depend on the adequacy of the judges’ understanding of the social processes that they are trying to influence. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3219

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s Chapter 9 debate over whether judges possess the expertise for effective policymaking.
• DEEPTHINKING: The counterintuitive point that Roe succeeded through unplanned market substitution rather than the Court’s own institutional design unsettles standard accounts of judicial implementation.