A Program for Judges and Court Administrators Involved in Legislative Processes
Courts and Legislatures
Judges, court managers and others who are not familiar with how a legislature works often find the legislative process to be incomprehensible and/or frustrating because access to the process does not seem to be guaranteed to all on an equal basis and principled reasoning and decision-making often seem to take a back seat to political compromise and expediency. It is also popularly believed that campaign contributions sometimes are more important than policy or a candidate's actual views on an issue.
This section explores the commonalities and differences between legislative and judicial processes so that you will better understand how a legislature functions and better appreciate its processes. Understanding the commonalities and differences will facilitate your involvement in legislative processes because you will know what to expect and you will know what others in the legislative process expect from you.
Many features of the legislative process may seem to be familiar to you both because of your general knowledge and education and because the processes seem, on their face, to be similar to judicial processes. However, the differences are much greater than the similarities, and part of the challenge in working in the legislative process is to understand that what may seem to be a similarity is actually a difference. Click on "Overview" to begin.