ABSTRACT
The unique authority possessed by the Supreme Court in its exercise of the power of judicial review has as its concomitant the prestige which members of that court enjoy. An analysis of the patterns of recruitment of Supreme Court members emphasizing both the social and the political background factors may clarify the position of Supreme Court in relation to interest group activity and elite theory. Since political participation of a very advanced kind appears as a crucial ingredient in the life careers of all but one of the members of the Supreme Court, the nature and extent of family conditioning for such participation deserves special attention. The ethnic origins of members of the Supreme Court represent another important source of data available for the determination of their social background. The mere recitation of the changing patterns of legal careers represented on the Supreme Court lacks meaningfulness except as a descriptive contribution.
