Book Review Reflections on Judging by Richard A. PosnerJudge Richard Posners latest book, Reflections on Judging, is a wide-ranging critique of the United States justice system that sares no ones feelings! "n the course of #reflecting,$ Posner, who has been a Judge of the United States %ourt of &eals for the Se'enth %ircuit since ()*(, attacks the U!S! Sureme %ourt, a number of rominent legal academics, aellate litigators, the Senate confirmation rocess, immigration judges, legal education, and his fellow judges on the United States %ourts of &eals! Posner is articularly dismayed by judges use of formalistic legal reasoning to a'oid graling with ractical roblems, and so he urges the judiciary to focus less on interreti'e theory and more on the real world consequences of their decisions! "n other words, he urges judges to be ragmatists+a label often alied to his own style of judging!&t the heart of the book is Posners contention that federal judges are failing to deal with the e'er-increasing comle,ity of the cases before them! -o gi'e a few e,amles. the 'alidity of a atent can turn on comlicated questions about engineering and roduct design/ the constitutionality of the 01"s search of a comuter hard dri'e requires knowledge about the manner in which data is coied and storied electronically/ and a comensatory damage award necessitates calculating rojected rofits and losses using ad'anced accounting rinciles! Posner contends that U!S! judges and lawyers ha'e been unwilling to address this comle,ity, and instead fall back on formalist de'ices+such as obscure canons of interretation, multifactored tests, and doctrines requiring deference to other decisionmakers+that do not resol'e the roblems at hand!Posner urges his fellow judges to abandon formalism for #legal realism$+by which he means consideration of the real world consequences of their decisions! 2ere he takes issue with U!S! Sureme %ourt Justice &ntonin Scalia, who authored the Sureme %ourts oinion holding that the U!S! %onstitution rotects indi'iduals right to own guns! Scalia wrote that the fact that hundreds more eole will die from gun 'iolence each year if the state is not ermitted to bar gun ownershi isirrele'ant to the constitutional question! Posner disagrees, because in his 'iew, #3i4f deaths are a consequences of deciding a case one way rather than another, thats something for the judge to consider along with other consequences!$-o be clear, Posner does not ad'ocate that judges simly rule in fa'or of the arty they refer win the case, regardless of what the law has to say about it! Rather, judicial decisions should consider all the ractical effects the decision will ha'e going forward, including the systemic effects on the redictability and administrability of the law! Judges err, says Posner, when they refuse to consider the consequences of their decision out of the mistaken ercetion that their role is limited toformal legal analysis, rather than graling with the facts of the case itself!-he roblem Posner describes is artly due to institutional design! 5ost federal judges are generalists, meaning they hear cases on a wide range of issues, and they ha'e no articular trainingor background to hel them deal with the increasing comle,ity of the cases before them! -he a'erage federal judge is begins his ser'ice in middle-age, and thus may be less willing and able to master new forms of technology! 62e notes that obser'ers ha'e described Sureme %ourt justices as #embarrassingly ignorant$ about comuters and modern communication!7! Posner lists do8ens of subjects that can arise in a tyical federal judges docket, ranging from biochemistry to genetics to telecommunications! 2ow is any federal judge to master those fields, and more, esecially considering the time constraints within which judges are e,ected to resol'e cases9Posners critique is trenchant, but unfortunately his roosed #modest$ solutions aear unlikely to resol'e the large roblems he identifies! Judges can only be effecti'e legal realists if they can figure out the consequences of their decisions! 1ut judges lack the tools to do that in the kinds of comle, cases that Posner describes! Posner suggests that judges get more training before ascending to the bench, and urges law schools to do more to assist them! :et it is hard to see how generic trainings would hel judges obtain knowledge about the 'arious questions of social science, statistics, economics, comuter science, and hysics they might need to hel resol'e a case touching on those toics! Posner also urges judges to look outside the record resented to them by ad'ocates for hel on such hard questions! &s Posner well knows, this ractice is contro'ersial because it can lead judges to rely on untested and unreliable e'idence! 0inally, Posner suggests that ad'ocates do a better job of focusing their case on the #real world$ facts that will assist judges in making a decision;such as by ro'iding mas and ictures, and e,laining what is truly at stake for their clients! 1ut as Posner acknowledges, lawyers will not alter the focus of their resentations to judges until judges alter their aroach to resol'ing cases!&lthough mostly focused on these olicy concerns about the state of the judiciary, Reflections on Judgingis also art memoir! -he book begins with a short re'iew of Posners own ath to law school,his (< years as a law rofessor, and then his