Top courts in the U.S. and Canada: A comparison.

• Author: Bowal, Peter

Knowledge of Canada or the United States is the best way to gain insight into the other North American country. Nations can be understood only in comparative perspective. And the more similar the units being compared, the more possible it should be to isolate the factors responsible for differences between them. Looking intensively at Canada and the United States sheds lights on both of them.

--Seymour Martin Lipset, Continental Divide: The Values and Institutions of the United States and Canada

The judges of the Supreme Courts of Canada and the United States are frequently in the news and national policy discussions. Yet, these nine individuals, unlike prominent politicians, are not well known by the people they serve in each country. While the courthouses in which they toil are magnets for tourists, most people would be hard pressed to name a Supreme Court judge, much less recognize one if they were standing next to one. The story is told of a family visiting the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. stopping and asking someone to take their picture. After the photo had been taken on the sprawling plaza with the court building in the background, they politely parted without the family having any idea their casual photographer was Justice Anthony Kennedy.

These top judges are known more for what they do through their decisions than who they are. However, that is changing as they are engaged in rejecting and enacting ultimate social and legal policy in their countries. The U.S. Supreme Court has recently delivered rulings on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage and funding for the new national Affordable Care Act (Obamacare).

We are increasingly asking about these judges--unelected, appointed and on the bench for a long time --who they are as human beings. It turns out that while there is gender and ethnic diversity, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court emerge from a virtually identical educational and geographical background. In a recent article in The Atlantic magazine, Akhil Reed Amar panned the peas-in-a-pod sameness of their professional backgrounds. All nine graduated from elite colleges and law schools. All but one (Stanford) were from the east coast and all went to law school at Harvard or Yale. Almost all were former members of U.S. courts of appeal. Only one had trial experience. None were in politics and only one held a high position in government. Eight grew up a large metropolitan area, including four who were raised...