Political Trust, Public Justification, and Judicial Office
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2026
Abstract
From the Publisher
This chapter examines the place of the judiciary in good government. It does so at a fraught moment: one in which there are high reported levels of generalized social distrust in judges. In this chapter, I argue that some peculiar tendencies of American legal thought have primed the public for toxic distrust of judges. I also argue, against the current, that trust-based accounts of good government can and should inform our understanding of judicial role morality. I argue that judges hold public office as a matter of political trust and are expected to act in a genuinely representative way by advancing public purposes that are constitutive of their offices. I also argue that judges may prove worthy of the public’s trust through demonstration of judicial virtue, by evincing plain commitment to the impartial pursuit of public purposes immanent in the law, and by fostering a healthy culture of public justification.
Recommended Citation
Miller, Paul B., "Political Trust, Public Justification, and Judicial Office" (2026). Book Chapters. 178.
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/book_chapters/178
Publication Information
in What is Good Government? The Philosophy of Office, Institutions, and Administration 244 (Nikolas Kirby ed., 2026).