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Description
The U.S. Supreme Court is a public policy battleground in which organized interests attempt to etch their economic, legal, and political preferences into law through the filing of amicus curiae ("friend of the court") briefs. In Friends of the Supreme Court: Interest Groups and Judicial Decision Making, Paul M. Collins, Jr. explores how organized interests influence the justices' decision making, including how the justices vote and whether they choose to author concurrences and dissents. Collins presents theories of judicial choice derived from disciplines as diverse as law, marketing, political science, and social psychology. This theoretically rich and empirically rigorous treatment of decision making on the nation's highest court, which represents the most comprehensive examination ever undertaken of the influence of U.S. Supreme Court amicus briefs, provides clear evidence that interest groups play a significant role in shaping the justices' choices.
Features
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Uses statistical techniques that are clearly explained in a straight-forward and matter-of-fact manner
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Includes specific examples of interest group litigation activities as context for understanding the conclusions derived from the empirical analyses
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Appropriate for use in advanced undergraduate, graduate, and law school classes focusing on empirical legal studies, judicial politics and behavior, interest group politics, and the U.S. Supreme Court
Praise for Friends of the Supreme Court
“Paul Collins presents a much-needed theory of interest group influence in the Supreme Court, and tests it in many innovative ways. In large part, Friends of the Supreme Court resolves the contentious question of whether or not interest groups affect Supreme Court decision making, and offers an inventive critique of the attitudinal model, complete with an entirely reasonable and new finding with respect to the influence of law. Given its use and reliance upon interdisciplinary scholarship, I am certain the legal academy will take notice, as will those interested in political science generally, judicial behavior specifically, and those studying interest group politics.”
—Sara C. Benesh, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, coauthor of The Supreme Court in the American Legal System.
“This is by far the most thoroughly documented, methodically sophisticated, and theoretically rich treatment of the role of amicus curiae in U.S. Supreme Court decision making that exists to date. Paul Collins’s research contributes significantly to the theoretical debate of whether law influences case outcomes at the Supreme Court. The data in Friends of the Supreme Court is incredibly comprehensive, covering thousands of Court decisions over an extended period of time, and the findings suggest an important shift in our understanding of judicial decision making, showing that amicus briefs exercise substantial influence over the justices’ decision making from the perspective of both the attitudinal and legal models. Collins takes care in weaving individual examples throughout the book—providing a terrific context for the non-social scientist to understand the conclusions drawn from the quantitative analyses.”
—Stefanie Ann Lindquist, University of Texas School of Law, coauthor of Judging on a Collegial Court: Influences on Federal Appellate Decision Making.
“Professor Collins provides a scholarly read that addresses a topic of consuming academic and legal interest. …He meticulously analyzes all aspects of amici participation not only in depth, but also longitudinally—from the beginning of the Vinson Court in 1946 to the end of the 2001 term. None have investigated the subject as comprehensively and thoroughly as Professor Collins, and I fully expect it to become the definitive work on amicus curiae participation and influence.”
—Harold Spaeth, Michigan State University, coauthor of The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model.
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Replication Materials
This file contains data and replication materials. The data are in Stata 10 format, compressed in a ZIP file. The Stata code to replicate the models appears in the accompanying do files. To download the data and replication materials, click here: Data and Do File.