Customer Reviews

Answering the Call of the Court: How Justices and Litigants Set the Supreme Court Agenda (Constitutionalism and Democracy)

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This book, by a University of Colorado political scientist, argues that the Supreme Court and some litigants stand in a symbiotic relationship. That is to say, the Court and its members signal through various ways that they are interested in particular topics (e.g., the death penalty, federalism, or abortion); interest groups and other litigants watch for these signals, and if they relate to areas of litigative interest for the potential litigants, this encourages them to initiate cases at the district court level which will eventally (via the Courts of Appeal) reach the Supremes who can then capitalize on them and rule in the areas that interest them. This relationship has developed because the Court can only rule on issues that come before it as "cases or controversies," and so the Justices signal their interest and wait (usually 4-5 years--the "percolation of litigation") for the appropriate cases to work their way up the judicial structure.

The approximate 200 pages of text, references and notes are devoted to filling out and refining this general thesis, which I have overly simplified for this review. The general reader, however, should be aware that the book utilizes a substantial amount of challenging (to say the least) statistical techniques and approaches to test its various theses and corolaries. While it is, therefore, really more a book for political scientists trained in these techniques, nonetheless it is possible to pick one's way through the numbers and charts and follow the author's discussion. The author also has included several very helpful chapters discussing such topics as appeals and case selection in the Court; Supreme Court policy cycles (a most interesting discussion); and cyclical patterns in the Court's agenda. A highly effective case study on litigation growing out of California proposition 187, which denied public assistance to illegal aliens, except emergency health care, is included which helps illustrate some of the author's themes. The book stands as a substantial contribution to the literature on the Court, developing a highly unique theory, and we "court watchers" can only wait with high expectations for the author's further endeavors.