Category Books

Supreme Court Decision-Making: New Institutionalist Approaches » (1st Edition)

Book cover image of Supreme Court Decision-Making: New Institutionalist Approaches by Cornell W. Clayton

Authors: Cornell W. Clayton (Editor), Howard (Ed.) Gillman, Howard Gillman (Editor), Howard Gillman
ISBN-13: 9780226109558, ISBN-10: 0226109550
Format: Paperback
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date Published: January 1999
Edition: 1st Edition

Author Biography: Cornell W. Clayton

Book Synopsis

What influences decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court? For decades social scientists focused on the ideology of individual justices. Supreme Court Decision Making moves beyond this focus by exploring how justices are influenced by the distinctive features of courts as institutions and their place in the political system.

Drawing on interpretive-historical institutionalism as well as rational choice theory, a group of leading scholars consider such factors as the influence of jurisprudence, the unique characteristics of supreme courts, the dynamics of coalition building, and the effects of social movements. The volume's distinguished contributors and broad range make it essential reading for those interested either in the Supreme Court or the nature of institutional politics.

Original essays contributed by Lawrence Baum, Paul Brace, Elizabeth Bussiere, Cornell Clayton, Sue Davis, Charles Epp, Lee Epstein, Howard Gillman, Melinda Gann Hall, Ronald Kahn, Jack Knight, Forrest Maltzman, David O'Brien, Jeffrey Segal, Charles Sheldon, James Spriggs II, and Paul Wahlbeck.

	List of Figures and Tables
	Acknowledgments
	Introduction: Beyond Judicial Attitudes: Institutional Approaches to Supreme Court Decision-Making	1
Pt. 1	Conceptualizing the Supreme Court as an Institution
1	The Supreme Court and Political Jurisprudence: New and Old Institutionalisms	15
2	Strategy and Judicial Choice: New Institutionalist Approaches to Supreme Court Decision-Making	43
3	The Court as an Idea, Not a Building (or a Game): Interpretive Institutionalism and the Analysis of Supreme Court Decision-Making	65
Pt. 2	Legal Norms and the Internal Structure of Supreme Court Decision-Making
4	Institutional Norms and Supreme Court Opinions: On Reconsidering the Rise of Individual Opinions	91
5	The Incidence and Structure of Dissensus on a State Supreme Court	115
6	The Chief Justice and Judicial Decision-Making: The Institutional Basis for Leadership on the Supreme Court	135
7	The Supreme Court and the Development of the Welfare State: Judicial Liberalism and the Problem of Welfare Rights	155
8	Institutional Norms and Supreme Court Decision-Making: The Rehnquist Court on Privacy and Religion	175
Pt. 3	Extra-Judicial Influences on Supreme Court Decision-Making
9	Recruitment and the Motivations of Supreme Court Justices	201
10	Mapping Out the Strategic Terrain: The Informational Role of Amici Curiae	215
11	Supreme Court Deference to Congress: An Examination of the Marksist Model	237
12	External Pressure and the Supreme Court's Agenda	255
13	State Supreme Courts and Their Environments: Avenues to General Theories of Judicial Choice	281
	References	301
	Cases Cited	329
	Contributors	333
	Index	337