April 2010 Vol. 108 No. 6 THE REVIEW

A Review of Richard A. Posner, How Judges Think (2008)

Jeffrey S. Sutton

How Judges Think. By Richard A. Posner. Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press. 2008. Pp. 387. $29.95.

I was eager to enter the judiciary. I liked the title: federal judge. I liked the job security: life tenure. And I could tolerate the pay: the same as Richard Posner's. That, indeed, may have been the most flattering part of the opportunity-that I could hold the same title and have the same pay grade as one of America's most stunning legal minds. Don't think I didn't mention it when I had the chance.

There is so much to admire about Judge Posner-his lively pen, his curiosity, his energy, his apparent understanding of: everything. He has written 53 books, more than 168 articles, thousands of opinions and numerous blog entries with Nobel-prize-winning economist Gary Becker. The output is hard to keep up with, as is the dizzying array of topics he covers-everything from economics to the Clinton impeachment to 9/11 to sex to literature to public health to aging-sometimes directly related to the law, sometimes not.

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