The New Justice on the Block: Acclimation Effects Revisited.

For over 50 years, we have been regaled with anecdotal accounts of an acclimation period for newly commissioned Supreme Court justices by scholars, reporters, and Court insiders alike. Some of the justices themselves have admitted that it took several years to become accustomed to the increased workload, new processes, and prestige that accompany this high office. But given these extensive reports, why have academics found the acclimation effect so elusive? To answer this question, I first draw from the anthropology, management, psychology, and sociology literature to develop a theory of judicial acclimation. This theory leads to a novel hypothesisâ??namely that the variance around a justice's votes should increase with time, as the justice is able to decrease his reliance on cognitive heuristics. This hypothesis is then subjected to empirical testing, the outcome of which supports the hypothesis. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]