Of Time and Judicial Behavior: United States Supreme Court Agenda-setting and Decision-making, 1888-1997

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Susquehanna University Press, 2003 - 276 pages
This study examines the agenda setting and decision making behavior of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1888 to 1997. The study finds that economics decisions dominated the Court's docket up until the 1950s, when civil liberties cases became more prominent, and judicial power decisions remained relatively constant.

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Contents

Chapter Summary
127
Who Wins and Who Loses across Time Liberalism of United States Supreme Court DecisionMaking 18881997
129
Chapter Summary
174
The LongRun Relationship between the Supreme Courts DecisionMaking Environment and Its Liberalism
176
Theoretical Foundation for Supreme Court DecisionMaking
177
Models of Supreme Court Liberalism across Time
179
Fractional Integration Nonstationarity and cointegration
195
The LongRun Relationship between the Justices Policy Preferences and Political Values
203

The White Court 191021
41
The Taft Court 192130
46
The Hughes Court 193041
49
The Stone Court 194146
55
Chapter Summary
58
Contours of Judicial Attention Composition and Dynamics of the Workload and the Agenda of the United States Supreme Court 18881997
60
Size and Composition of the Courts Caseload
62
Major Issue Areas
85
Chapter Summary
92
Going Their Own Way Unanimity of United States Supreme Court DecisionMaking 18881997
96
Unanimity Examined
98
Chapter Summary
206
The Continuity of Change The Supreme Court across Time
208
Importance of the Books Findings
218
Suggestions for Further Research
219
Coding Sheet for Agenda and Decisional Data for the United States Supreme Court 18881937
222
Coding Protocol for Agenda and Decisional Data for the United States Supreme Court 18881937
224
Notes
228
References
252
Index
260
Copyright

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Page 192 - When a nation is at war many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight, and that no court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right.
Page 106 - A dissent in a court of last resort is an appeal to the brooding spirit of the law, to the intelligence of a future day, when a later decision may possibly correct the error into which the dissenting judge believes the court to have been betrayed.
Page 53 - But the liberty safeguarded is liberty in a social organization which requires the protection of law against the evils which menace the health, safety, morals and welfare of the people.
Page 41 - In my opinion, the judgment this day rendered will, in time, prove to be quite as pernicious as the decision made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott case.
Page 111 - For the fact of disagreement demonstrates that the members of the Court are operating on different assumptions, that their inarticulate major premises are dissimilar, that their value systems are differently constructed and weighted, that their political, economic, and social views contrast in important respects.
Page 14 - Neither the collectors of the original data nor the Consortium bears any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here. In order to provide funding agencies with essential information about the use of archival resources and to facilitate the exchange of information about ICPSR participants...
Page 53 - The Court is almost never a really contemporary institution. The operation of life tenure in the judicial department, as against elections at short intervals of the Congress, usually keeps the average viewpoint of the two institutions a generation apart. The judiciary is thus the check of a preceding generation on the present one; a check of conservative legal philosophy upon a dynamic people, and nearly always the check of a rejected regime on the one in being.
Page 46 - Communist movement itself, present a clear and present danger to the security of the United States and to the existence of free American institutions, and make it necessary that Congress, in order to provide for the common defense, to preserve the sovereignty of the United States...
Page 33 - Our Constitution is color blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful.

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