My Own Words

As the biographers explain, when the Supreme Court justices reach a decision, “to read full opinions of the court would take many hours” (150). Thus, while these full judgments become available to the public, one justice makes a “bench announcement,” a brief summary of the court’s ruling and the legal reasoning used to achieve that decision. Justices who disagree with the majority decision may give a dissenting bench announcement. Ginsburg expresses the idea that concurrence and collegiality compel justices to offer such dissents only when the dissenter believes the majority has made a serious legal error. During Ginsburg’s 12 years of service on the Rehnquist court, she offered six dissenting bench announcements. During the first eight years of Chief Justice John Roberts’s tenure, however, Ginsburg made 12 dissenting bench announcements.

A term that does not appear in the volume’s index but which Ginsburg refers to repeatedly throughout is “collegiality,” the shared attitude of acceptance that pervades the Supreme Court justices. Ginsburg notes, “Collegiality is the key to the success of our mission” (xx). When describing the regular activities of the justices, she focuses on the “customs that promote collegiality” (56). Ginsburg continually stresses the idea that the court functions properly and completes its duties properly not because uniform agreement exists among the justices but rather because of their ability to disagree and still maintain a collegial fellowship.