Value judgments inhere throughout; it is not a mechanical process. Values do not form in a vacuum; their range depends always on factual limitations. Thus, judges’ decisions are governed by their beliefs about facts as well as abstract rules; the act of deciding involves both the determination of material facts and the determination of what rules are to be applied to the facts.

Ruggero J. Aldisert, Agatha D. Aldisert, Logic for Lawyers- A Guide …, loc. 160