Judicial Policies: Implementation and Impact

Canon, Bradley C.; Johnson, Charles

doi:10.4135/9781483330020

Cited by 171 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

103

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…While proportionately few such reversals actually occur, due to the Court's shrinking docket, 4 Baum finds that stigma attaches to one's reversal rate (Baum 1978; see also Baum 1976;Caminker 1994). In addition, judges are socialized into the legal culture, thereby having certain role perceptions (Tarr 1977), and they take a pledge to defend and uphold the Constitution, which should count for something (Canon and Johnson 1999). They also have an interest in maintaining the appearance of integrity in order that their decisions be accorded respect.…”

Section: Compliance and Impact In Judicial Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Lower court judges have several options available to them as they apply Supreme Court precedent. They can interpret the precedent narrowly, limiting it to its specific facts (Canon and Johnson 1999). They can cite their own opinions in lieu of the offending precedent (Manwaring 1972).…”

Section: Compliance and Impact In Judicial Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, the principalagent model of Brehm and Gates (1997) may more aptly apply to the courts' hierarchical structure: the lower court will shirk (i.e., not follow) when it does not like the policy, work (i.e., follow) when it does, and sabotage (i.e., attempt to negatively influence) the policy when it really hates it. That is, lower court judges may interpret cases consistently with Supreme Court intent only when they agree with the policy or are indifferent to it (Canon and Johnson 1999).…”

Section: Compliance and Impact In Judicial Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We argue that the Supreme Court does impact society and that compliance by the lower courts evidences that impact. 2 That compliance, however, is not automatic and is most definitely a political process (Canon and Johnson 1999).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Overruled: An Event History Analysis of Lower Court Reaction to Supreme Court Alteration of Precedent

Benesh¹,

Reddick²

2002

The Journal of Politics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

While past research has demonstrated widespread compliance in the Courts of Appeals with Supreme Court precedent (e.g., Gruhl 1980; Songer 1987; Songer, Segal, and Cameron 1994; Songer and Sheehan 1990), compliance is not automatic and is surely political. We examine compliance with Supreme Court overrulings of precedent—cases in which we might expect the lowest levels of compliance with Supreme Court policy prescriptions. We argue that several variables are relevant to the compliance decision and that those variables fall into two broad categories: characteristics of the Supreme Court precedent and characteristics of the circuit applying the precedent. In our event history analysis, we find that both precedent and circuit characteristics determine whether, and how quickly, a circuit follows a Supreme Court decision that overrules existing precedent; that is, unanimity, complexity, and the age of the overruled precedent, as well as the likelihood of Supreme Court review, are related to the compliance decision. While the Courts of Appeals adopt alterations in Supreme Court precedent rather quickly (within one or two relevant decisions), these factors exert some influence on that speed.

show abstract

Section: Compliance and Impact In Judicial Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Compliance and Impact In Judicial Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Compliance and Impact In Judicial Scholarshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Overruled: An Event History Analysis of Lower Court Reaction to Supreme Court Alteration of Precedent

Benesh¹,

Reddick²

2002

The Journal of Politics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Second, this research is important in that it sheds fresh light on how the Supreme Court interacts with lower courts. While there is a voluminous literature on this topic, it overwhelmingly focuses on lower court interpretation of, and compliance with, Supreme Court precedent (e.g., Canon and Johnson 1999;Klein 2002;Sanders 1995), ignoring how lower courts shape Supreme Court precedents. As such, the current paper holds the promise of illustrating the ability of lower courts to shape the doctrinal course of federal law as it is articulated in Supreme Court opinions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Lower Court Influence on U.S. Supreme Court Opinion Content

Corley

Collins

Calvin

2011

The Journal of Politics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite the importance of Supreme Court opinions for the American polity, scholars have dedicated little systematic research to investigating the factors that contribute to the content of the Court's opinions. In this paper, we examine the ability of lower federal courts to shape the content of Supreme Court opinions. We argue that lower court opinions will influence the content of the Court's opinions based on a number of factors, including the prestige of the lower court opinion author, the published or unpublished nature of the lower court opinion, the ideological compatibility of the lower court opinion vis-à-vis the Supreme Court's decision, the type of lower court opinion, and the lower court from which the opinion emanated. Utilizing plagiarism detection software to compare lower federal court opinions with the majority opinions of the Supreme Court during the 2002-2004 terms, we uncover support for our hypotheses, indicating that the Supreme Court systematically incorporates language from the lower federal courts into its majority opinions.

show abstract

The Supreme Court and Judicial Power

Lamb

Neiheisel

2020

Constitutional Landmarks

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Judicial Policies: Implementation and Impact

Cited by 171 publications

References 0 publications

Overruled: An Event History Analysis of Lower Court Reaction to Supreme Court Alteration of Precedent

Overruled: An Event History Analysis of Lower Court Reaction to Supreme Court Alteration of Precedent

Lower Court Influence on U.S. Supreme Court Opinion Content

The Supreme Court and Judicial Power

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About