Ideology in the Language of Judges: How Judges Practice Law, Politics, and Courtroom Control (Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics)

224 Pages·1998·10.27 MB·English

by  Susan U. Philips

Ideology in the Language of Judges
OXFORD STUDIES IN ANTHROPOLOGICAL LINGUISTICS
William Bright, General Editor
Editorial Board
Wallace Chafe, University of California, Santa Barbara
Regna Darnell, University of Western Ontario
Paul Friedrich, University of Chicago
Dell Hymes, University of Virginia
Jane Hill, University of Arizona
Stephen C. Levinson, Max Planck Institute, The Netherlands
Joel Sherzer, University of Texas, Austin
David J. Parkin, University of London
Andrew Pawley, Australian National University
Jef Verschueren, University of Antwerp
Volumes Published in the Series
1 Gunter Senft: Classificatory Particles in Kilivila
2 Janis B. Nuckolls: Sounds Like Life: Sound-Symbolic Grammar, Performance, and Cognition in
Pastaza Quechua
3 David B. Kronenfeld: Plastic Glasses and Church Fathers: Semantic Extension from the
Ethnoscience Tradition
4 Lyle Campbell: American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics of Native America
5 Chase Hensel: Telling Our Selves: Ethnicity and Discourse in Southwestern Alaska
6 Rosaleen Howard-Malverde (ed.): Creating Context in Andean Cultures
7 Charles L. Briggs (ed.): Disorderly Discourse: Narrative, Conflict, and Inequality
8 Anna Wierzbicka: Understanding Cultures through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish,
German, and Japanese
9 Gerrit J. van Enk and Lourens de Vries: The Korowai of Irian Jaya: Their Language in Its
Cultural Context
10 Peter Bakker: A Language of Our Own: The Genesis of Michif, the Mixed Cree-French
Language of the Canadian Metis
11 Gunter Senft (ed.): Referring to Space: Studies in Austronesian and Papuan Languages
12 David McKnight: People, Countries, and the Rainbow Serpent: Systems of Classification among
the Lardil of Mornington Island
13 Penelope Gardner-Chloros, Robert B. Le Page, Andree Tabouret-Keller, and Gabrielle Varro
(eds.): Vernacular Literacy Revisited
14 Steven Roger Fischer: Rongorongo, the Easter Island Script: History, Traditions, Text
15 Richard Feinberg: Oral Traditions of Anuta, a Polynesian Outlier in the Solomon Islands
16 Bambi Schieffelin, Kathryn A. Woolard, and Paul Kroskrity (eds.): Language Ideologies:
Practice and Theory
17 Susan U. Philips: Ideology in the Language of Judges: How fudges Practice Law, Politics, and
Courtroom Control
Ideology
in the Language
of Judges
How Judges Practice Law, Politics,
and Courtroom Control
SUSAN U. PHILIPS
New York • Oxford
Oxford University Press
1998
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota Bombay Buenos Aires
Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong
Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne
Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw
and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1998 by Susan U. Philips
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.
198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Philips, Susan Urmston.
Ideology in the language of judges: how judges practice law,
politics, and courtroom control / Susan U. Philips,
p. cm. — (Oxford studies in anthropological linguistics ; 17)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-511340-3; ISBN 0-19-511341-1 (pbk.)
1. Judges—United States. 2. Judicial process—United States.
3. Law and politics. 4. Law—Language. I. Title. II. Series.
KF8775.P49 1998
347.73'14—dc21 97-48671
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 42
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To my mother,
Mary Jane Urmston
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowledgments
Iwould like first to acknowledge Robert Edgerton's influence on my thinking about
American culture, which came through my working with him and Craig McAndrew
as an undergraduate research assistant when they were studying the culture of pa-
tients at a southern California hospital for the mentally retarded. Through participa-
tion in their ethnographic research, I came to be able to think about my own cul-
ture anthropologically.
The research itself was supported by two postdoctoral fellowships—a Russell Sage
Residency in Law and Social Sciences and a National Science Foundation National
Needs Postdoctoral Fellowship. During the year I took courses at the University of
Arizona College of Law, I learned a great deal from my professors Joel Finer, David
Wexler, Charles Ares, and Dan Dobbs. Charles Ares guided some of my initial inquiries
into the judiciary and introduced me to the Honorable William Druke, who at that
time was associate presiding judge of the Pima County Superior Court. Judge Druke,
in turn, agreed to supervise my research in that court. He arranged meetings for me
with prospective subjects for my study. Judge Druke also obtained an oral ruling from
the Honorable Stanley Feldman, chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, that my
tape recording in court, not allowed by outsiders at that time, could be carried out as
an exception for educational purposes. My greatest debt is to the nine judges who
participated in this study. They gave generously and thoughtfully of their time and
ideas, each offering distinctive perspectives. Their staff members reflected the high
morale surrounding all of these judges in their kindness and hospitality on the many
occasions when I visited judges' chambers.
I am also grateful to graduate students at the University of Arizona for research
assistance of various kinds. Jean Florman did most of the transcription of recordings
of court proceedings from a summer of initial pilot work. Terry Reichardt Betancourt
viii Acknowledgments
did the bulk of transcription of the guilty pleas and interviews with judges that form
the heart of the data analyzed here. Anne Reynolds coded and counted patterns in
questions and answers in the guilty pleas. Claudia Bartz did some preliminary analy-
sis of similarities and differences in career history interviews with judges. Helen
Robbins helped with the references.
I was supported in the write-up of this material by a sabbatical, a Socio-Behavioral
Research Institute Research Professorship, and a Udall Center for Policy Studies Fel-
lowship, all through the University of Arizona. Doris Sample typed and retyped a good
deal of material for me during the early stages of writing the manuscript.
A number of people read and/or discussed all or parts of this manuscript with me.
William O'Barr, Jane Hill, Sheila Slaughter, Deborah Tannen, Greg Matoesian, and
the Honorable Margaret Houghton read the entire work. I am particularly grateful to
Deborah for her careful reading and fine editing of the manuscript. Dave Wexler,
Charles Ares, and Patricia MacCorquodale commented on various sections of the text.
I benefited from discussions with Sally Merry, Sue Hirsch, and Niko Besnier about
issues in the book. And I have also been helped by the comments from Bill Bright,
editor of the series in which this book appears, and the anonymous readers to whom
he sent the book for review. I very much appreciate the efforts of all these people.
Finally I thank my husband, Wes Addison, and our son, Charlie Addison, for being
supportive of this work, and I also thank Charlie for his help with the final prepara-
tion of the book manuscript.
Contents
Introduction xi
1 Ideology in Discourse 3
2 The Myth of the Trial Court Judge as Nonideological 14
3 Intertextual Relations between Written and Spoken Genres of Law 27
4 Two Ideological Stances in Taking Guilty Pleas 48
5 Judges'Ideologies of Courtroom Control 87
6 Ideological Diversity in Legal Discourses 116
Appendixes
Appendix A: Social Background Questionnaire 127
Appendix B: Career History Interview 133
Appendix C: Rule 17, Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure:
Pleas of Guilty and No Contest 135
Appendix D: Plea Agreement 137
Appendix E: Transcription Notations 141
Appendix F: Four Changes of Plea / Guilty Plea Transcripts 147
Appendix G: Refusal of Plea Agreement in Aborted Sentencing Transcript 187
Notes 193
References 197
Index 203