The Courts and Social Policy
The Courts and Social Policy

Author: Donald L. Horowitz

Publisher: Brookings Institution Press

Published: 2010-12-10

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 9780815707318

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In recent years, the power of American judges to make social policy has been significantly broadened. The courts have reached into many matters once thought to be beyond the customary scope of judicial decisionmaking: education and employment policy, environmental issues, prison and hospital management, and welfare administration—to name a few. This new judicial activity can be traced to various sources, among them the emergence of public interest law firms and interest groups committed to social change through the courts, and to various changes in the law itself that have made access to the courts easier. The propensity for bringing difficult social questions to the judiciary for resolution is likely to persist. This book is the first comprehensive study of the capacity of courts to make and implement social policy. Donald L. Horowitz, a lawyer and social scientist, traces the imprint of the judicial process on the policies that emerge from it. He focuses on a number of important questions: how issues emerge in litigation, how courts obtain their information, how judges use social science data, how legal solutions to social problems are devised, and what happens to judge-made social policy after decrees leave the court house. After a general analysis of the adjudication process as it bears on social policymaking, the author presents four cases studies of litigation involving urban affairs, educational resources, juvenile courts and delinquency, and policy behavior. In each, the assumption and evidence with which the courts approached their policy problems are matched against data about the social settings from which the cases arose and the effects the decrees had. The concern throughout the book is to relate the policy process to the policy outcome. From his analysis of adjudication and the findings of his case studies the author concludes that the resources of the courts are not adequate to the new challenges confronting them. He suggests

Judging Inequality
Judging Inequality

Author: James L. Gibson

Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation

Published: 2021-08-31

Total Pages: 379

ISBN-13: 161044907X

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Social scientists have convincingly documented soaring levels of political, legal, economic, and social inequality in the United States. Missing from this picture of rampant inequality, however, is any attention to the significant role of state law and courts in establishing policies that either ameliorate or exacerbate inequality. In Judging Inequality, political scientists James L. Gibson and Michael J. Nelson demonstrate the influential role of the fifty state supreme courts in shaping the widespread inequalities that define America today, focusing on court-made public policy on issues ranging from educational equity and adequacy to LGBT rights to access to justice to worker’s rights. Drawing on an analysis of an original database of nearly 6,000 decisions made by over 900 judges on 50 state supreme courts over a quarter century, Judging Inequality documents two ways that state high courts have crafted policies relevant to inequality: through substantive policy decisions that fail to advance equality and by rulings favoring more privileged litigants (typically known as “upperdogs”). The authors discover that whether court-sanctioned policies lead to greater or lesser inequality depends on the ideologies of the justices serving on these high benches, the policy preferences of their constituents (the people of their state), and the institutional structures that determine who becomes a judge as well as who decides whether those individuals remain in office. Gibson and Nelson decisively reject the conventional theory that state supreme courts tend to protect underdog litigants from the wrath of majorities. Instead, the authors demonstrate that the ideological compositions of state supreme courts most often mirror the dominant political coalition in their state at a given point in time. As a result, state supreme courts are unlikely to stand as an independent force against the rise of inequality in the United States, instead making decisions compatible with the preferences of political elites already in power. At least at the state high court level, the myth of judicial independence truly is a myth. Judging Inequality offers a comprehensive examination of the powerful role that state supreme courts play in shaping public policies pertinent to inequality. This volume is a landmark contribution to scholarly work on the intersection of American jurisprudence and inequality, one that essentially rewrites the “conventional wisdom” on the role of courts in America’s democracy.

Lighting the Way
Lighting the Way

Author: Douglas Rice

Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Published: 2020-03-03

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 0813943957

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Do our federal courts, including the Supreme Court, lead or merely implement public policy? This is a critical question in the study and practice of law, with a long history of continued dispute and contradictory evidence. In Lighting the Way, Douglas Rice systematically examines both sides of this debate. Introducing compelling new data on the policy focuses of federal courts, Rice presents the first long-term, comprehensive consideration of the judicial agenda. In doing so, he details the essential role of the Supreme Court and other federal courts in directing attention to issues in American politics through influential relationships with Congress, the presidency, and the public. The dynamics Rice illustrates grow from the strengths of political constituencies in various policy areas and the constitutional powers accorded to the courts. Lighting the Way provides strong evidence that, as long argued but never empirically demonstrated, the courts systematically lead the attention of other institutions on civil rights. The research speaks to a broad and growing literature in political science and sociolegal research on the interactive nature of policymaking and the critical role of legal institutions and social movements in shaping policy agendas.

Law and Public Policy
Law and Public Policy

Author: Kevin J. Fandl

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-09-03

Total Pages: 501

ISBN-13: 1351243071

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Laws exist to incentivize us to act in a certain manner, in accordance with the policies that our community has deemed right for us. And when we disagree with those laws, we must re-examine our policies, and thus our beliefs and ideas, to decide whether our community has changed. This is a book about law and public policy—about the ideas and the rules we build to implement those rules. While similar books have looked at public policy and public administration in an effort to explain how the government works, and others have considered the foundations of the legal system to understand the rulemaking institutions, this book takes a different approach. In this ground-breaking new textbook, author Kevin Fandl develops a complete picture of society, from idea to action -- by examining laws through the lens of policy, and vice versa. This holistic approach gives readers a chance to see not only why certain rules exist, but how those rules evolved over time and the events that inspired them. It offers readers an opportunity not only to see but also to participate in the process of forming the structures that shape our society. This textbook is divided into two sections. The first section provides readers with the tools that they will need to digest the policies and laws that surround them. These tools include a historical deep dive into the foundations of the governance structure in the United States and beyond, an important examination of civics and a reminder of the importance of engaging in the policymaking process, a careful breakdown of the institutions that form the backbone of the law and policy-making institutions in the United States, and finally critical thinking including practical tools to find reliable sources for news, research, and other types of information. The second section of the text is comprised of subject-matter analyses. These subject-based chapters, written by experts on the topic at hand begin with a historical perspective, followed by a careful examination of the key policies and laws that inform that field. Each chapter highlights key vocabulary, provides practical vignettes to add context to the writing, explores a unique global component to compare perspectives from communities worldwide, and includes a number of discussion questions and recommended readings for further examination. This textbook is tailored specifically for undergraduate and graduate students of public policy, to introduce them to the role of law and legal institutions as facilitators and constraints on public policy, exploring those laws in a range of relevant policy contexts with the help of short case studies.

The Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions
The Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions

Author: R. A. W. Rhodes

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2008-06-12

Total Pages: 836

ISBN-13: 019103696X

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The study of political institutions is among the founding pillars of political science. With the rise of the 'new institutionalism', the study of institutions has returned to its place in the sun. This volume provides a comprehensive survey of where we are in the study of political institutions, covering both the traditional concerns of political science with constitutions, federalism and bureaucracy and more recent interest in theory and the constructed nature of institutions. The Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions draws together a galaxy of distinguished contributors drawn from leading universities across the world. Authoritative reviews of the literature and assessments of future research directions will help to set the research agenda for the next decade.

The Nature of Supreme Court Power
The Nature of Supreme Court Power

Author: Matthew E. K. Hall

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2013-09-12

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781107617827

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Few institutions in the world are credited with initiating and confounding political change on the scale of the United States Supreme Court. The Court is uniquely positioned to enhance or inhibit political reform, enshrine or dismantle social inequalities, and expand or suppress individual rights. Yet despite claims of victory from judicial activists and complaints of undemocratic lawmaking from the Court's critics, numerous studies of the Court assert that it wields little real power. This book examines the nature of Supreme Court power by identifying conditions under which the Court is successful at altering the behavior of state and private actors. Employing a series of longitudinal studies that use quantitative measures of behavior outcomes across a wide range of issue areas, it develops and supports a new theory of Supreme Court power. Matthew E. K. Hall finds that the Court tends to exercise power successfully when lower courts can directly implement its rulings; however, when the Court must rely on non-court actors to implement its decisions, its success depends on the popularity of those decisions. Overall, this theory depicts the Court as a powerful institution, capable of exerting significant influence over social change.

The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics
The Authority of the Court and the Peril of Politics

Author: Stephen Breyer

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2021-09-14

Total Pages: 113

ISBN-13: 0674269365

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A sitting justice reflects upon the authority of the Supreme CourtÑhow that authority was gained and how measures to restructure the Court could undermine both the Court and the constitutional system of checks and balances that depends on it. A growing chorus of officials and commentators argues that the Supreme Court has become too political. On this view the confirmation process is just an exercise in partisan agenda-setting, and the jurists are no more than Òpoliticians in robesÓÑtheir ostensibly neutral judicial philosophies mere camouflage for conservative or liberal convictions. Stephen Breyer, drawing upon his experience as a Supreme Court justice, sounds a cautionary note. Mindful of the CourtÕs history, he suggests that the judiciaryÕs hard-won authority could be marred by reforms premised on the assumption of ideological bias. Having, as Hamilton observed, Òno influence over either the sword or the purse,Ó the Court earned its authority by making decisions that have, over time, increased the publicÕs trust. If public trust is now in decline, one part of the solution is to promote better understandings of how the judiciary actually works: how judges adhere to their oaths and how they try to avoid considerations of politics and popularity. Breyer warns that political intervention could itself further erode public trust. Without the publicÕs trust, the Court would no longer be able to act as a check on the other branches of government or as a guarantor of the rule of law, risking serious harm to our constitutional system.

Handbook of Court Administration and Management
Handbook of Court Administration and Management

Author: Hays

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 1992-12-22

Total Pages: 552

ISBN-13: 9780824787691

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Blending both the theoretical and applied aspects of contemporary issues in court management, this reference/text offers in-depth coverage of all major topics and developments in judicial systems administration. It is suitable for use in the classroom or for self-study.;Providing the background material to clarify even the most technical management application, this book: presents the history and theory of the court management movement; examines the separation of powers doctrine, and its relationship to judicial independence; discusses the latest developments in court reform, the American Bar Association standards, alternative dispute resolution techniques and caseflow considerations; analyzes unified court budgeting and revenue generation by judicial systems; describes personnel administration, training and jury management; and elucidates court performance evaluation, planning approaches, the use of cameras in the courtroom and audio-visual applications.

The Constrained Court
The Constrained Court

Author: Michael A. Bailey

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2011-08-22

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 1400840260

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How do Supreme Court justices decide their cases? Do they follow their policy preferences? Or are they constrained by the law and by other political actors? The Constrained Court combines new theoretical insights and extensive data analysis to show that law and politics together shape the behavior of justices on the Supreme Court. Michael Bailey and Forrest Maltzman show how two types of constraints have influenced the decision making of the modern Court. First, Bailey and Maltzman document that important legal doctrines, such as respect for precedents, have influenced every justice since 1950. The authors find considerable variation in how these doctrines affect each justice, variation due in part to the differing experiences justices have brought to the bench. Second, Bailey and Maltzman show that justices are constrained by political factors. Justices are not isolated from what happens in the legislative and executive branches, and instead respond in predictable ways to changes in the preferences of Congress and the president. The Constrained Court shatters the myth that justices are unconstrained actors who pursue their personal policy preferences at all costs. By showing how law and politics interact in the construction of American law, this book sheds new light on the unique role that the Supreme Court plays in the constitutional order.