But in public policy, fewer and fewer decisions are made on the substantive merits.
The decision on emergency contraceptives, whatever its substantive merits, blunted a potential Republican opportunity to strike on social issues.
"We are examining our jurisdictional options to have our case heard on its substantive merits," Dale Moss, the president of the Ambassadors, said in an email.
He is pressing it on what he sees as the substantive merits, but sees it as well as an example of how the way a policy is framed can determine its political viability.
True to its "horse race" philosophy of covering politics, early on most of the press declared Cain's plan a brilliant campaign move without making any effort to evaluate its substantive merits.
McMurdo was also suggesting "at least by implication, that I may be biased in relation to the substantive merits of the determination of the application for my recusal for bias".
These dissenters stress the substantive merits of the course of action the akratic agent follows.
So we remain confident about any decision on the substantive merits of the plan.
Horowitz's office said the review will not substitute the [Office of the Inspector General's] judgment for the judgments made by the FBI or the Department [of Justice] regarding the substantive merits of investigative or prosecutive decisions.'" [HuffPost].
Horowitz's office said the review "will not substitute the [Office of the Inspector General's] judgment for the judgments made by the FBI or the Department [of Justice] regarding the substantive merits of investigative or prosecutive decisions".
"In dismissing this case, the court did not address the substantive merits — Wheaton's argument that being forced to offer drugs that violate its religious beliefs is harmful to its religious freedom," Kyle Duncan, general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, said in a statement.
