The idea was first proposed by Hoover Institution economist Thomas Sowell and popularized by D.C. Court of Appeals Senior Judge Laurence Silberman in a speech to The Federalist Society in 1992.
[1][2] Silberman said "It seems that the primary objective of The Times's legal reporters is to put activist heat on recently appointed Supreme Court justices.
Greenhouse came under fire from conservatives for publicly espousing liberal viewpoints by participating in a 1989 pro-choice march and in remarks at the Radcliffe Institute in 2006.
Ms. Greenhouse: Well, Judge Silberman is giving credit for coming up with that snarky phrase, but actually, he swiped it off from Tom Bethell, the economist, who had put it in a column shortly before.
Mr. Bethell, an editor at the American Spectator and another Hoover Institution fellow, started the "Strange New Respect Awards", which are given to conservatives who have become more liberal.
Pat Buchanan, a conservative political commentator, wrote the passage below, after quoting Linda Greenhouse in reference to Justice John Paul Stevens' advocating a reconsideration of the death penalty in Kennedy v. Louisiana: For his defection to the abolitionist camp, the 88-year-old justice was rewarded with her patented deep massage by Linda Greenhouse, the veteran — and after 30 years retiring — Supreme Court reporter of The New York Times: "When Justice John Paul Stevens intervened in a Supreme Court argument on Wednesday to score a few points off the lawyer who was defending the death penalty for the rape of a child, the courtroom audience saw a master strategist at work, fully in command of the flow of the argument and the smallest details of the case.
"[14] Since the majority of the general public does not have the time, interest or expertise to read the opinions for themselves, they must depend on newspapers, periodicals, radio and TV for its information.
Some scholars have postulated that swing justices, who have disproportionate influence over the court, may be more attuned to public opinion since their own policy preferences are weaker than their colleagues.
[17] The demographics of the Supreme Court reveal that Justices tend to be more highly educated and wealthy relative to the rest of the nation.
Amicus curiae briefs and law review articles can influence the court by providing precedents or reasoning to support a position.
This is despite the fact that President Richard Nixon asked Justice Harry Blackmun if "he could resist the Washington cocktail party circuit" before his nomination.
By the conclusion of his tenure, Frankfurter was second only to John M. Harlan II as the Court's most extreme conservative voter; he actually ended his service more firmly planted on the right than Chief Justice Rehnquist.
As James F. Simon once wrote, Black's "increasingly brittle, unmistakably conservative tilt" actually proved embarrassing to many of his admirers.
In an interview given just minutes before Casey was handed down, he said: "Sometimes you don't know if you're Caesar about to cross the Rubicon or Captain Queeg cutting your own tow line."
Kennedy displays the concern with his historical image that would lend credence to the Greenhouse effect, for example by having his clerks clip all news stories about him.