Another contribution of several essays is to provide insights about the forces that influenced the justices' positions on legal issues. The essays typically do not offer systematic explanations for the justices' work on the Court, but frequently they point to elements of justices' backgrounds and experiences that shaped their opinions. Jacob Landynski's essay on Lewis Powell suggests the effects of Powell's service on local and state school boards on his responses to education cases. Yarbrough discusses the impact of Stewart's journalism background on his First Amendment jurisprudence. Daniel Kramer, who interviewed several former law clerks for his essay on Byron White, cites their hypotheses about the impact of White's small-town background and Justice Department experience on his conservatism in criminal justice and of the latter on his support for racial equality.
Several essays make other distinctive contributions to an understanding of individual justices.
For example, Cook presents an innovative analysis of the votes of O'Connor and other justices to characterize the values that she supported, and the result is an insightful catalogue of O'Connor's value system as expressed in her positions in cases. Stephen Wasby makes a careful argument about the sources of Harry Blackmun's shift to the left during his time on the Burger Court. Individually, the essays provide a sense of doctrinal developments in the Burger Court through the roles of individual justices. William Daniels, for instance, emphasizes Thurgood Marshall's role as a dissenter against the Court's rejection of his positions on issues that he gave a high priority. The editors' two essays address some broader issues concerning the policies and directions of the Burger Court.