Judicial role orientations define which factors judges may legitimately weigh in deciding cases

Evidence

More specifically, role orientations indicate the factors that judges believe they can legitimately consider and how much weight they should give those factors in making their decisions. The influence of judicial role orientations can be seen in how judges treat precedent. If judicial attitudes alone determined judicial decisions, then judges would uphold precedents that stipported outcomes they favored and overrule precedents that produced disagreeable results. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2597

Categorization

• DEFINE: Supplies the working definition of ‘role orientation’ the chapter builds its analysis on: legitimate factors plus their proper weight.
• XREF: Connects to the attitudinal model versus legal model debate — role orientation is the mediating variable between raw preference and precedent-following.