IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ratsoc/v23y2011i4p452-477.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How rational are justices on the Supreme Court of the United States? Doctrinal considerations during agenda setting

Author

Listed:
  • Udi Sommer

Abstract

Justices on the US Supreme Court are rational and therefore strategic policymakers. Yet, how rational are they? How far into the future would their strategic considerations reach? Due to potential influence on both policy and doctrine, ceteris paribus they find opinion authorship desirable; when selecting cases, in addition to thinking about legal issues and the final disposition, justices strategically consider opinion crafting. To overcome the measurement error inherent to the estimation of rational behavior of the type proposed here, the Simulation Extrapolation protocol is introduced. There is strong support for the notion of doctrine-minded justices at cert. The social implications of such rational behavior are far-reaching; employing this strategy, over the course of her time in office, a justice would be able to considerably influence several policy and legal issues. In closing, implications of strategic behavior on the individual-justice level for the constitutional position of the Court within American society are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Udi Sommer, 2011. "How rational are justices on the Supreme Court of the United States? Doctrinal considerations during agenda setting," Rationality and Society, , vol. 23(4), pages 452-477, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:23:y:2011:i:4:p:452-477
    DOI: 10.1177/1043463111425014
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043463111425014
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1043463111425014?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. James W. Hardin & Henrik Schmeidiche & Raymond J. Carroll, 2003. "The regression-calibration method for fitting generalized linear models with additive measurement error," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 3(4), pages 373-385, December.
    2. Segal, Jeffrey A., 1997. "Separation-of-Powers Games in the Positive Theory of Congress and Courts," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 91(1), pages 28-44, March.
    3. Caldeira, Gregory A. & Wright, John R., 1988. "Organized Interests and Agenda Setting in the U.S. Supreme Court," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 82(4), pages 1109-1127, December.
    4. de Mesquita, Ethan Bueno & Stephenson, Matthew, 2002. "Informative Precedent and Intrajudicial Communication," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 96(4), pages 755-766, December.
    5. Caldeira, Gregory A & Wright, John R & Zorn, Christopher J W, 1999. "Sophisticated Voting and Gate-Keeping in the Supreme Court," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 549-572, October.
    6. James W. Hardin & Henrik Schmeidiche & Raymond J. Carroll, 2003. "The regression-calibration method for fitting generalized linear models with additive measurement error," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 3(4), pages 361-372, December.
    7. James W. Hardin & Raymond J. Carroll, 2003. "Variance estimation for the instrumental variables approach to measurement error in generalized linear models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 3(4), pages 342-350, December.
    8. Chris W. Bonneau & Thomas H. Hammond & Forrest Maltzman & Paul J. Wahlbeck, 2007. "Agenda Control, the Median Justice, and the Majority Opinion on the U.S. Supreme Court," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 51(4), pages 890-905, October.
    9. Banks,Jeffrey S. & Hanushek,Eric Allen (ed.), 1995. "Modern Political Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521478106.
    10. Howard, J. Woodford, 1968. "On the Fluidity of Judicial Choice," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 62(1), pages 43-56, March.
    11. Lax, Jeffrey R., 2007. "Constructing Legal Rules on Appellate Courts," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 101(3), pages 591-604, August.
    12. Banks,Jeffrey S. & Hanushek,Eric Allen (ed.), 1995. "Modern Political Economy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521472333.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maxwell Mak & Andrew H. Sidman & Udi Sommer, 2013. "Is Certiorari Contingent on Litigant Behavior? Petitioners' Role in Strategic Auditing," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(1), pages 54-75, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tom S Clark, 2016. "Scope and precedent: judicial rule-making under uncertainty," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 28(3), pages 353-384, July.
    2. Ryan J. Owens, 2010. "The Separation of Powers and Supreme Court Agenda Setting," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 54(2), pages 412-427, April.
    3. Joshua A Strayhorn, 2019. "Competing signals in the judicial hierarchy," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 31(3), pages 308-329, July.
    4. Elert, Niklas & Henrekson, Magnus, 2017. "Entrepreneurship and Institutions: A Bidirectional Relationship," Working Paper Series 1153, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 05 May 2017.
    5. Drazen, Allan, 2002. "Central Bank Independence, Democracy, and Dollarization," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 5(1), pages 1-17, May.
    6. Scott H. Ainsworth, 1997. "Representation and Institutional Stability," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 9(2), pages 147-165, April.
    7. Ugaz, Cecilia, 2001. "A Public Goods Approach to Regulation of Utilities," WIDER Working Paper Series 009, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Madior Fall & Muriel Roger, 2008. "L’impact de la réforme de 1990 sur les décisions de départ à la retraite des exploitants agricoles français," Review of Agricultural and Environmental Studies - Revue d'Etudes en Agriculture et Environnement, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 89(4), pages 29-53.
    9. David Austen-Smith & Jeffrey S. Banks, 1997. "Social Choice Theory," Discussion Papers 1196, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    10. Muro, Sergio & Chehtman, Alejandro, 2020. "Law or strategic calculus? Abstention in the Argentine Supreme Court," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    11. Dewan, Torun & Myatt, David P., 2008. "The Qualities of Leadership: Direction, Communication, and Obfuscation," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 102(3), pages 351-368, August.
    12. Eric Ip, 2014. "The judicial review of legislation in the United Kingdom: a public choice analysis," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 221-247, April.
    13. Tamara Todorova, 2004. "Quality Aspects of Economic Transition: The Effect of Inferior Quality on the Market," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 2, pages 59-78.
    14. Schmidt, Klaus M., 2000. "The political economy of mass privatization and the risk of expropriation," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 393-421, February.
    15. Laura Sour, 2004. "An Economic Model of Tax Compliance with Individual Morality and Group Conformity," Economía Mexicana NUEVA ÉPOCA, CIDE, División de Economía, vol. 0(1), pages 43-61, January-J.
    16. Raymond Riezman & John Douglas Wilson, 2013. "Political Reform and Trade Policy," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Raymond Riezman (ed.), International Trade Agreements and Political Economy, chapter 13, pages 201-224, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    17. Rui Baleiras & Vasco Santos, 2000. "Behavioral and Institutional Determinants of Political Business Cycles," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 104(1), pages 121-147, July.
    18. Robert A.J. Dur & Ben D. Peletier & Otto H. Swank, 1997. "The Effect of Fiscal Rules on Public Investment if Budget Deficits are Politically Motivated," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 97-125/1, Tinbergen Institute.
    19. Jones, Mark P. & Sanguinetti, Pablo & Tommasi, Mariano, 2000. "Politics, institutions, and fiscal performance in a federal system: an analysis of the Argentine provinces," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 305-333, April.
    20. Leung, Charles Ka Yui, 2014. "Error correction dynamics of house prices: An equilibrium benchmark," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(C), pages 75-95.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:23:y:2011:i:4:p:452-477. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.