You really should visit the Vatican. While you are there, be sure to pause for a few moments to marvel at Raphael's “School of Athens” in the Stanza della Signatura. According to James Beck (1993, 78), “[A]mong the handful of masterpieces of the period, the picture has few equals.” In the center of this fresco, the greatest thinkers, philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians of antiquity flank Plato and Aristotle. Plato, who bears an uncanny (and intended) resemblance to Leonardo da Vinci, is pointing at the sky. His partner in conversation, Aristotle, has his palm down and is pointing toward earth. These gestures are designed to represent their different philosophical ideals. Plato seems to represent normative ideals, whereas Aristotle is grounded in the empirical world. We do not think they were discussing judicial decision making, but they could have been. The normative-empirical debate has raged throughout political science for decades and has helped to shape the way scholars have studied the Supreme Court.

If they had been discussing decision making on the modern Supreme Court, Plato would have been arguing that the Court uses precedents and grounds its decisions in the law. The Court follows legal interpretations and exercises restraint in its decision making. To the contrary, Aristotle would have responded, the Court is a collection of individuals who can follow their own political preferences and are not strictly bound by legal factors. They are unconstrained and free to pursue their conception of the good society.