Majority Rule or Minority Will
Adherence to Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court

This book, first published in 1999, examines the influence of precedent on the behavior of the US Supreme Court justices.

Harold J. Spaeth (Author), Jeffrey A. Segal (Author)

9780521805711, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 19 February 2001

378 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 2.6 cm, 0.52 kg

"Their new book, Majority Rule or Minority Will, is a follow-up to...This book raises important qusetions that the heart of work being done by judges and "jurisprudentially minded scholars"." American Bar Foundation

This book, first published in 1999, examines the influence of precedent on the behavior of US Supreme Court justices throughout the Court's history. Under the assumption that for precedent to be an influence on the behavior of justices it must lead to a result they would not otherwise have reached, the results show that when justices disagree with the establishment of a precedent, they rarely shift from their previously stated views in subsequent cases. In other words, they are hardly ever influenced by precedent. Nevertheless, the doctrine of stare decisis does exhibit some low level influence on the justices in the least salient of the Court's decisions. The book examines these findings in light of several leading theories of judicial decision making.

List of tables and figures
Preface
1. Precedent and the Court
2. Measuring precedential behavior
3. Precedential behavior from the beginning through the Chase Court
4. Precedential behavior bridging the 19th and 20th centuries
5. Precedential behavior in the Hughes, Stone, and Vinson courts
6. Precedential behavior in the Warren court
7. Precedential behavior in the Burger Court
8. Precedential behavior in the Rehnquist court
9. The Supreme court and state decisions
10. Conclusions
List of references
Case index
Subject/name index.

Subject Areas: Jurisprudence & general issues [LA], History of the Americas [HBJK], Regional studies [GTB]