TY - JOUR
T1 - How rational are justices on the Supreme court of the United States? doctrinal considerations during agenda setting
AU - Sommer, Udi
PY - 2011/11
Y1 - 2011/11
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Supreme Court of the United States
KW - agenda setting
KW - decision making
KW - judicial writ of certiorari
KW - rational behavior
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=82455167378&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1043463111425014
DO - 10.1177/1043463111425014
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AN - SCOPUS:82455167378
SN - 1043-4631
VL - 23
SP - 452
EP - 477
JO - Rationality and Society
JF - Rationality and Society
IS - 4
ER -