ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the birth order factor in presidential selection of Supreme Court Justices. The basic birth order hypothesis is that the order in which one is born into a family has a major impact on one’s social and personality development. Corollary hypotheses are that birth order will influence one’s choice of vocation, choice of marriage partner and level of achievement. A more puzzling finding is the substantial differences between the Presidents of different parties in their penchant for appointing to the court persons of different birth orders. Republican Presidents are more likely to choose more conservative persons for the court, Democratic Presidents more liberal. The number of Chief Justices is so small and the change that took place in the directions of the Court so gradual that one cannot dismiss the possibility that chance alone accounts for the pattern of first born-middle born leadership.
