Volume 2, No. 3 (March, 1992) pp. 49-51

THE POLITICS OF STATE COURTS by Harry P. Stumpf and John H. Culver. New York: Longman, 1992. 183 pp. Paper $22.95.

Reviewed by Mark C. Miller, Department of Government, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts.

The authors rightfully begin this undergraduate text with the observation that political scientists do not pay enough attention to state courts. Although state courts handle the bulk of litigation in the United States, there are few available texts that focus exclusively on state judiciary systems. Stumpf and Culver have attempted to fill this void. The book is a useful, although imperfect, attempt to gather and present the sparse literature in this area.

The book's chapter organization scheme covers most of the expected judicial process topics. The brief introductory chapter attempts to explain why state courts are important political institutions in our federal system, and it offers a discussion of the differences in legal cultures among the states. The second chapter gives a quick overview of the organizational, jurisdictional, and administrative differences among the state court systems. Other chapters in the book cover the role of lawyers in the state legal systems, an overview of civil and criminal litigation processes, and state appellate courts. The concluding chapter is a broad discussion of alternative dispute resolution options and of the future roles for state courts in our federal system. Most of these chapters are generally standard, if somewhat simplistic, treatments of the judicial process literature in these areas.

When writing about a topic as diverse and complex as the state courts, there is often the danger of either over generalizing or of losing the reader in a sea of unconnected details. Stumpf and Culver have erred on the side of broad generalities and over simplification. Their book is written at a very elementary level, with many important topics receiving superficial treatments. For example, the authors flatly state that legal cultures differ among various regions and between urban and rural areas, but no attempt is made to identify systematically factors that might influence these differences. There is a very brief discussion of the need for more minority and female lawyers and judges, but it feels like an afterthought. Recent developments concerning the impact of the 1965 Voting Rights Act on state judicial selection systems are ignored. Court reform movements in the states are discussed, but the depth of analysis is not sufficient for my students.

The weakest chapter deals with state judicial selection systems and the social background characteristics of state judges. The selection system discussion is especially confusing and quite superficial. For example, there is no discussion of the similarities and differences between partisan and technically nonpartisan election systems. In my opinion, several state judicial selection systems with which I am very familiar are wrongly classified. For example, Ohio is classified as a nonpartisan election system. While it is

Page 50 follows:

technically true that the candidates' party affiliations do not appear on the general election ballot in Ohio, Stumpf and Culver fail to note that judicial candidates there are selected through partisan primaries. During the general election campaign season in Ohio, the two parties widely distribute party voting cards listing the judicial candidates of their party. The media in Ohio covers most judicial races, especially those for seats on the Ohio Supreme Court, as extremely partisan events. None of this nuance is present in this book.

In another classification error, the Massachusetts courts are classified as a merit selection system. Most scholars would classify Massachusetts as a gubernatorial appointment state. While technically the last several Governors of Massachusetts have employed informal merit selection committees to assist them is selecting judicial nominees, this practice was established only by executive order and has been easily changed by successive Governors. In reality, Massachusetts state judges are appointed by the Governor for life terms, with confirmation by the popularly elected Governor's Council. Because Stumpf and Culver use the terms "merit selection" and "Missouri Plan" interchangeably, they imply that some form of retention elections occur in all states classified as merit states. This is certainly not true in Massachusetts. Another problem is that although Connecticut is properly classified as a merit selection state in the chapter's charts, in the text it is treated as if it were still a legislative appointment state. While the change to merit selection is relatively recent in Connecticut, the textual discussion is obviously outdated. Thus the classifications of the selection systems of the Ohio, Massachusetts, and Connecticut courts are highly misleading.

Another problem is that throughout the book many of the charts and figures are confusing and poorly labeled. While the discussion of state court organizations is overly simplistic, the charts in this chapter are overly complicated. One would have preferred a compromise somewhere between these two extremes. Some of the charts nicely show the differences among the states, while others are so complicated and so poorly labeled as to be almost unreadable.

Although this text does help fill a serious void in the literature, it is too elementary in tone and analysis for my taste. The writing style is quite readable, but the research findings are presented as fact with little discussion of the assumptions and controversies that underlie much of the current judicial process literature. Most of the important works on state and federal courts are listed in the reference sections at the end of each chapter, but the discussions of these works are often superficial. This new text might be appropriate as one of several books used in an introductory course on state politics or possibly in an Introduction to American Politics course. It may also be appropriate for use at the junior college level. In my opinion, however, it is too elementary for most advanced undergraduate judicial process courses at major teaching and research institutions. After reading this text, I fear that even my first year undergraduates would come away asking, "Is that all there is to the state courts?"

Page 51 follows:

I am very glad to see a new text in an area where there are so few available. Although this text includes much very useful information, it is a shame that it has so many flaws. I think there are better judicial process texts on the market, even if they don't deal exclusively with the state judiciaries.