For generations of aliens coming to America, the Statute of Liberty was the first figure they saw as their ships sailed into New York Harbor. For many other aliens fighting their deportation or removal in the federal courts, the image of Lady Justice was the last thing they saw as they headed into a federal courtroom. Yet neither of these two iconic figures of American life conveys the full story of the federal courts' treatment of immigration. The welcoming and majestic symbol of Lady Liberty elides the dark chapters of exclusion and bias in United States immigration history, in which the United States has blatantly discriminated against races, nationalities, and ideologies of “undesirable” aliens by preventing them from entering or outright expelling them from the United States. Similarly, the representations of Lady Justice belie the very complex interactions of the multitude of influences that affect and shape judicial decision making.

Judicial decision making, in addition to being influenced by the ideology and individual characteristics of the judges, is very much circumscribed by the institutional settings and contexts of the courts. Some formal or informal norms, such as the constraining influence of stare decisis and doctrine, are indigenous to legal institutions, as opposed to the elected branches of government. But the analysis of other aspects of institutional context, such as the manner in which the federal judiciary is structured, or the limitations posed by formal and informal rules of operation, can be applied to studying other political institutions.