Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Home
Hostname: page-component-7ccbd9845f-w45k2 Total loading time: 0.407 Render date: 2023-01-29T08:48:24.695Z Has data issue: true Feature Flags: { "useRatesEcommerce": false } hasContentIssue true
  • English
American Political Science Review American Political Science Review

Article contents

The Constraining Capacity of Legal Doctrine on the U.S. Supreme Court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2009

BRANDON L. BARTELS
BRANDON L. BARTELS*
Affiliation:
George Washington University
*
Brandon L. Bartels is Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, George Washington University, 2115 G Street, NW, 440 Monroe Hall, Washington, DC 20052 (bartels.20@gmail.com).
Get access Rights & Permissions[Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Does law exhibit a significant constraint on Supreme Court justices' decisions? Although proponents of the attitudinal model argue that ideology predominantly influences justices' choices, “hybrid models” posit that law and ideology exhibit discrete and concurrent effects on justices' choices. I offer a new conceptualization of legal constraint examining how legal rules permit varying degrees of ideological discretion, which establishes how strongly ideological preferences will influence justices' votes. In examining the levels-of-scrutiny legal doctrine, I posit theoretical models highlighting the differential constraining capacities of the strict scrutiny, intermediate scrutiny, and rational basis rules. I use a multilevel modeling framework to test the hypotheses within the context of the Grayned doctrine in free expression law. The results show that strict scrutiny, which Grayned applied to content-based regulations of expression, significantly constrains ideological voting, whereas intermediate scrutiny (applied to content-neutral regulations) and the low scrutiny categories each promote high levels of ideological voting.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 103 , Issue 3 , August 2009 , pp. 474 - 495
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bailey, Michael A., and Maltzman, Forrest. 2008. “Does Legal Doctrine Matter? Unpacking Law and Policy Preferences on the U.S. Supreme Court.” American Political Science Review 102: 369–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldez, Lisa, Epstein, Lee, and Martin, Andrew D.. 2006. “Does the U.S. Constitution Need an ERA?” Journal of Legal Studies 35: 243–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baum, Lawrence. 1989. “Comparing the Policy Positions of Supreme Court Justices from Different Periods.” Western Political Quarterly 42: 509–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baum, Lawrence. 1997. The Puzzle of Judicial Behavior. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Baum, Lawrence. 2006. Judges and Their Audiences: A Perspective on Judicial Behavior. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Braman, Eileen C. 2004. “Motivated Reasoning in Legal Decision-Making.” Ph.D. diss. Ohio State University.Google Scholar
Brambor, Thomas, Clarke, William Roberts, and Golder, Matt. 2006. “Understanding Interaction Models: Improving Empirical Analyses.” Political Analysis 14: 63–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown v. Board of Education. 1954. 347 U.S. 483.Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, Ethan, and Stephenson, Matthew. 2002. “Informative Precedent and Intrajudicial Communication.” American Political Science Review 96: 755–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaplinski v. New Hampshire. 1942. 315 U.S. 568.Google Scholar
Chemerinsky, Erwin. 2002. Constitutional Law: Principles and Policies. 2nd ed. New York: Aspen.Google Scholar
Chicago Police Department v. Mosley. 1972. 408 U.S. 92.Google Scholar
Congdon, Peter. 2003. Applied Bayesian Modelling. Chichester, UK: Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig v. Boren. 1976. 429 U.S. 190.Google Scholar
Epstein, Lee, Hoekstra, Valerie, Segal, Jeffrey A., and Spaeth, Harold J.. 1998. “Do Political Preferences Change? A Longitudinal Study of U.S. Supreme Court Justices.” Journal of Politics 60: 801–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, Lee, and Knight, Jack. 1998. The Choices Justices Make. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Epstein, Lee, Martin, Andrew D., Quinn, Kevin M., and Segal, Jeffrey A.. 2007. “Ideological Drift among Supreme Court Justices: Who, When, and How Important?” Northwestern University Law Review 101: 1483–503.Google Scholar
Friedman, Barry. 2006. “Taking Law Seriously.” Perspectives on Politics 4: 261–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedrich, Robert. 1982. “In Defense of Multiplicative Terms in Multiple Regression Equations.” American Journal of Political Science 26: 797–833.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gates, John B., and Phelps, Glenn A.. 1996. “Intentionalism in Constitutional Opinions.” Political Research Quarterly 49: 245–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelman, Andrew, Carlin, John B., Stern, Hal S., and Rubin, Donald B.. 2003. Bayesian Data Analysis. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall/CRC.Google Scholar
Gelman, Andrew, and Hill, Jennifer. 2007. Data Analysis Using Regression and Multilevel/Hierarchical Models. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gelman, Andrew, and Rubin, Donald B.. 1992. “A Single Series from the Gibbs Sampler Provides a False Sense of Security.” In Bayesian Statistics, eds. Bernardo, J. et al. , New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
George, Tracey E., and Epstein, Lee. 1992. “On the Nature of Supreme Court Decision Making.” American Political Science Review 86: 323–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gill, Jeff. 2002. Bayesian Methods: A Social and Behavioral Sciences Approach. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall/CRC.Google Scholar
Gilman, Howard. 1999. “The Court as an Idea, Not a Building (or a Game): Interpretative Institutionalism and the Analysis of Supreme Court Decision-Making.” In Supreme Court Decision-Making: New Institutionalist Approaches, eds. Clayton, Cornell W. and Gillman, Howard. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gilman, Howard. 2001. “What's Law Got To Do with It?” Law & Social Inquiry 26: 465–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grayned v. Rockford. 1972. 408 U.S. 104.Google Scholar
Gunther, Gerald. 1971. “Foreword: In Search of Evolving Doctrine on a Changing Court: A Model for a Newer Equal Protection.” Harvard Law Review 86: 1–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness. 1981. 452 U.S. 640.Google Scholar
Howard, Robert M., and Segal, Jeffrey A.. 2002. “An Original Look at Originalism.” Law & Society Review 36: 113–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobi, Tonja, and Tiller, Emerson H.. 2007. “Legal Doctrine and Political Control.” Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization 23: 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn, Ronald. 1999. “Institutionalized Norms and Supreme Court Decision-Making: The Rehnquist Court on Privacy and Religion.” In Supreme Court Decision-Making: New Institutionalist Approaches, eds. Clayton, Cornell W. and Gillman, Howard. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Knight, Jack, and Epstein, Lee. 1996. “The Norm of Stare Decisis.” American Journal of Political Science 40: 1018–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamb's Chapel v. Center Moriches School District. 1993. 508 U.S. 384.Google Scholar
Maltzman, Forrest, Spriggs, James F., and Wahlbeck, Paul J.. 2000. Crafting Law on the Supreme Court: The Collegial Game. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
March, James G., and Olsen, Johan P.. 1984. “The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life.” American Political Science Review 78: 734–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Andrew D., and Quinn, Kevin M.. 2002. “Dynamic Ideal Point Estimation via Markov Chain Monte Carlo for the U.S. Supreme Court, 1953–1999.” Political Analysis 10: 134–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Andrew D., and Quinn, Kevin M.. 2005. “Can Ideal Point Estimates Be Used as Explanatory Variables?” Working paper.Google Scholar
Masson v. New Yorker Magazine. 1991. 501 U.S. 496.Google Scholar
McCubbins, Mathew D., Noll, Roger G., and Weingast, Barry R.. 1987. “Administrative Procedures as Instruments of Political Control.” Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization 3: 243–77.Google Scholar
Miller v. California. 1973. 413 U.S. 15.Google Scholar
Murphy, Walter M. 1964. Elements of Judicial Strategy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
North, Douglass C. 1990. Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Planned Parenthood v. Casey. 1992. 505 U.S. 833Google Scholar
Pritchett, C. Herman. 1948. The Roosevelt Court. New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Pritchett, C. Herman. 1954. Civil Liberties and the Vinson Court. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Regan v. Taxation Without Representation. 1983. 461 U.S. 540.Google Scholar
Richards, Mark J., and Kritzer, Herbert M.. 2002. “Jurisprudential Regimes in Supreme Court Decision Making.” American Political Science Review 96: 305–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodriguez, German, and Goldman, Noreen. 1995. “An Assessment of Estimation Procedures for Multilevel Models with Binary Responses.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A 158: 73–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodriguez, German, and Goldman, Noreen. 2001. “Improved Estimation Procedures for Multilevel Models with Binary Response: A Case-Study.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A 164: 339–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roe v. Wade. 1973. 410 U.S. 113.Google Scholar
Rohde, David. 1991. Parties and Leaders in the Postreform House. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rohde, David W., and Spaeth, Harold J.. 1976. Supreme Court Decision Making. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman.Google Scholar
Schubert, Glendon. 1974. The Judicial Mind Revisited. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Segal, Jeffrey A., and Cover, Albert D.. 1989. “Ideological Values and the Votes of U.S. Supreme Court Justices.” American Political Science Review 83: 557–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segal, Jeffrey A., and Spaeth, Harold J.. 1993. The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Segal, Jeffrey A., and Spaeth, Harold J.. 1996. “The Influence of Stare Decisis on the Votes of United States Supreme Court Justices.” American Journal of Political Science 40: 971–1003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segal, Jeffrey A., and Spaeth, Harold J.. 2002. The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shepsle, Kenneth A. 1979. “Institutional Arrangements and Equilibrium in Multidimensional Voting Models.” American Journal of Political Science 23: 27–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skrondal, Anders, and Rabe-Hesketh, Sophia. 2004. Generalized Latent Variable Modeling: Multilevel, Longitudinal, and Structural Equation Models. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Songer, Donald R. 1994. “Review of Majority Rule or Minority Will: Adherence to Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court.” 93: 983–84.Google Scholar
Spaeth, Harold J. 1964. “The Judicial Restraint of Mr. Justice Frankfurter: Myth or Reality.” Midwest Journal of Political Science 8: 22–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spaeth, Harold J. 2005. United States Supreme Court Judicial Database. Program for Law and Judicial Politics, Michigan State University.Google Scholar
Spaeth, Harold J., and Segal, Jeffrey A.. 1999. Majority Rule or Minority: Adherence to Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spaeth, Harold J., and Teger, Stuart. 1982. “Activism and Restraint: A Cloak for the Justices’ Policy Preferences.” In Supreme Court Activism and Restraint, eds. Halpern, Stephen and Lamb, Charles. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Spiegelhalter, David J., Best, Nicola G., Carlin, Bradley P., and van der Linde, Angelika. 2002. “Bayesian Measures of Model Complexity and Fit.” Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B 64: 583–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spiegelhalter, David J., Thomas, Andrew, and Best, Nickey G.. 2004. WinBUGS Version 1.4.1. Cambridge, UK: MRC Biostatistics Unit.Google Scholar
Sunstein, Cass R. 1999. One Case at a Time: Judicial Minimalism on the Supreme Court. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tiller, Emerson H., and Cross, Frank B.. 2006. “What Is Legal Doctrine?” Northwestern University Law Review 100: 517–33.Google Scholar
Tribe, Laurence. 1988. American Constitutional Law. 2nd ed. Westbury, NY: Foundation Press.Google Scholar
U.S. v. Carolene Products. 1938. 304 U.S. 144.Google Scholar
Winkler, Adam. 2006. “Fatal in Theory and Strict in Fact: An Empirical Analysis of Strict Scrutiny in the Federal Courts.” Vanderbilt Law Review 59: 793–871.Google Scholar
52
Cited by

Save article to Kindle

To save this article to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

The Constraining Capacity of Legal Doctrine on the U.S. Supreme Court
Available formats
×

Save article to Dropbox

To save this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Dropbox account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

The Constraining Capacity of Legal Doctrine on the U.S. Supreme Court
Available formats
×

Save article to Google Drive

To save this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you used this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your Google Drive account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

The Constraining Capacity of Legal Doctrine on the U.S. Supreme Court
Available formats
×
×

Reply to: Submit a response

Please enter your response.

Your details

Please enter a valid email address.

Conflicting interests

Do you have any conflicting interests? *