Strategy on the United States Supreme Court

This book reveals how strategic behavior - or its absence - influences the decisions of the Supreme Court and, as a result, American politics and society.

Saul Brenner (Author), Joseph M. Whitmeyer (Author)

9780521736343, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 16 February 2009

208 pages, 1 b/w illus. 6 tables
21.5 x 13.9 x 1.4 cm, 0.28 kg

"...the book provides an accessible assessment of the literature that should demystify rational-choice research on the courts for students and serve as a useful starting point for the critical discussion of the strength of empirical data underlying alternative models of judging."
Perspectives on Politics, Eileen Braman, Indiana University

To what extent do the justices on the Supreme Court behave strategically? In Strategy on the United States Supreme Court, Saul Brenner and Joseph M. Whitmeyer investigate the answers to this question and reveal that justices are substantially less strategic than many Supreme Court scholars believe. By examining the research to date on each of the justice's important activities, Brenner and Whitmeyer's work shows that the justices often do not cast their certiorari votes in accord with the outcome-prediction strategy, that the other members of the conference coalition bargain successfully with the majority opinion writer in less than 6 percent of the situations, and that most of the fluidity in voting on the Court is nonstrategic. This work is essential to understanding how strategic behavior - or its absence - influences the decisions of the Supreme Court and, as a result, American politics and society.

I. Introduction: 1. The legal model
2. The attitudinal model
3. The strategic models
II. Certiorari: 4. The losing litigant model
5. The outcome-prediction strategy
III. The Conference Vote on the Merits: 6. Strategic voting at the conference vote
7. Fluidity and strategic voting
IV: The Majority Opinion and Other Opinions: 8. The extent of successful bargaining over the content of the majority opinion
9. The size of opinion coalitions
10. At whose ideal point will the majority opinion be written?
11. Reciprocity on the supreme court
V. The Final Vote on the Merits: 12. The separation of powers model
13. Supreme Court decision making and public opinion
VI. Concluding Chapters: 14. Strategies in pursuit of institutional goals
15. Summary
Appendix 1: decision making on the U.S. Supreme Court
Appendix 2: additional questions to explore.

Subject Areas: International relations [JPS], Constitution: government & the state [JPHC]