Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-10T00:52:01.991Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social, Cultural, and Temporal Dynamics of the AIDS Case Congregation: Early Years of the Epidemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Kriss A. Drass ,
Michael Musheno  and
Peter R. Gregware
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Studies of legal decisionmaking have focused traditionally on how social influences, particularly the relative social standing of competing parties, affect case outcomes. More recently, sociolegal scholars have directed their attention to the significance of cultural categories in shaping case-based decisionmaking. We here examine how both social and cultural factors shape judicial decisions and their meanings for a “congregation” of court cases precipitated by the AIDS epidemic in the United States. Our logistic regression analysis of the opinions of 181 AIDS-related cases decided in the early years of the epidemic (1983-89) finds that two social factors, the relative social standing of parties and the types of claims brought to the court, and two cultural factors, the court's use of negative AIDS metaphors and references to individual rights, are significantly related to case outcome. Finally, in line with Galanter's (1990) notion that case congregations have histories that involve development and change over time, our temporal analysis reveals the emergence of two case congregations and suggests how each serves to bolster the legitimacy of the judiciary amidst social crisis.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , 1997 , pp. 267 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by The Law and Society Association.

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.)

Footnotes

This research was supported by a National Science Foundation Grant, Law and Social Science Program, grant no. SES-8908456. The authors' names appear in alphabetical order to reflect equal contributions.

References

References

Aiken, Jane Harris, & Musheno, Michael (1994) “Why Have-Nots Win in the HIV Litigation Arena: Socio-Legal Dynamics of Extreme Cases,” 16 Law & Policy 267–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albert, E. (1986) “Illness and Deviance: The Response of the Press to AIDS,” in Feldman, D. M. and Johnson, T. M., eds., The Social Dimensions of AIDS: Method and Theory. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Bayer, Ronald (1989) Private Acts, Public Consequences: AIDS and the Politics of Public Health. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Black, Donald (1976) The Behavior of Law. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Black, Donald (1984) “Social Control as Dependent Variable,” in Black, D., ed., Toward a General Theory of Social Control, vol. Toward a General Theory of Social Control, vol: Fundamentals. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Black, Donald (1989) Sociological Justice. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Black, Donald (1990) “The Elementary Forms of Conflict Management,” in School of Justice Studies Editorial Board , eds., New Directions in the Study of Justice, Law and Social Control. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Brandt, Allen M. (1987) “An Historical Perspective,” in Dalton et al. 1987.Google Scholar
Brigham, John (1994) “Sexual Entitlement: Rights and AIDS, the Early Years,” 16 Law & Policy 249–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, R. L., Durbin, J., & Evans, J. M. (1975) “Techniques for Testing the Constancy of Regression Relationships over Time,” 37 (ser. B) J. of the Royal Statistical Society 149–92.Google Scholar
Burris, Scott, Dalton, Harlon L., Miller, Judith Leonie, & the Yale AIDS Law Project (1993) AIDS Law Today. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Canan, Penelope, Satterfield, Gloria, Larson, Laurie, & Kretzmann, Martin (1990) “Political Claims, Legal Derailment, and the Context of Disputes,” 24 Law & Society Rev. 923–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, Jacob, & Cohen, Patricia (1983) Applied Multiple Regression/Correlation Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences. 2d Ed. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Conley, John M., & O'Barr, William M. (1990) Rules versus Relationships: The Ethnography of Legal Discourse. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cook, Timothy E., & Colby, David C. (1992) “The Mass-Mediated Epidemic: The Politics of AIDS on the Nightly Network News,” in Fee & Fox 1992b.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crimp, Douglas (1988a) “Introduction: AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism,” in Crimp 1988b.Google Scholar
Crimp, Douglas, ed. (1988b) AIDS: Cultural Analysis and Cultural Activism. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.Google Scholar
Cruikshank, Margaret (1992) The Gay and Lesbian Liberation Movement. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Dalton, Harlon L. (1993) “Criminal Law,” in Burris et al. 1993.Google Scholar
Dalton, Harlon L., Burris, Scott, & the Yale AIDS Law Project, eds. (1987) AIDS and the Law: A Guide for the Public. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Danelski, David J. (1984) “Law from a Political Perspective,” 36 Western Political Science Rev. 548–51.Google Scholar
Dowling, Harry Filmore (1977) Fighting Infection: Conquests of the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drass, Kriss A., & Spencer, J. William (1987) “Accounting for Pre-sentencing Recommendations: Typologies and Probation Officers' Theory of Office,” 34 Social Problems 277–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durey, Michael (1979) The Return of the Plague: British Society and the Cholera 1831–2. New York: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Fee, Elizabeth, & Fox, Daniel (1992a) “Introduction: The Contemporary Historiography of AIDS,” in Fee & Fox 1992b.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fee, Elizabeth, & Fox, Daniel, eds. (1992b) AIDS: The Making of a Chronic Disease. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischl, Richard Michael (1987) “Some Realism about Critical Legal Studies,” 41 Univ. of Miami Law Rev. 505–32.Google Scholar
Gamson, Josh (1989) “Silence, Death, and the Invisible Enemy: AIDS Activism and Social Movement Newness,” 36 Social Problems 351–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galanter, Marc (1974) “Why the ‘Haves’ Come out Ahead: Speculation on the Limits of Legal Change,” 9 Law & Society Rev. 95–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galanter, Marc (1990) “Case Congregations and Their Careers,” 24 Law & Society Rev. 371–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glick-Schiller, Nina (1992) “What's Wrong with the Picture? The Hegemonic Construction of Culture in AIDS Research in the United States,” 6 Medical Anthropology Q. 237–54.Google Scholar
Gostin, Larry (1987) “Traditional Public Health Strategies,” in Dalton et al. 1987.Google Scholar
Gregware, Peter R. (1994) “Courts, Criminal Process, and AIDS: The Institutionalization of Culture in Legal Decision Making,” 16 Law & Policy 341–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Griffin, Larry J., & Isaac, Larry W. (1992) “Recursive Regression and the Historical Use of ‘Time’ in Time-Series Analysis of Historical Process,” 25 Historical Methods 166–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollibaugh, Amber, Karp, Mitchell, & Taylor, Katy (1988) “The Second Epidemic,” in Crimp 1988b.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, Alan (1993) Explorations in Law and Society: Towards a Constitutive Theory of Law. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Inciardi, James A. (1992) The War on Drugs II: The Continuing Epic of Heroin, Cocaine, Crack, Crime, AIDS, and Public Policy. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.Google Scholar
Ingrassia, Lawrence (1993) “Fighting Words: Gay, Lesbian Groups Seek to Expunge Bias They See in Language,” Wall Street J., 3 May, p. 1.Google Scholar
Isaac, Larry W., & Griffin, Larry J. (1989) “Ahistoricism in Time-Series Analyses of Historical Process: Critique, Redirection, and Illustrations from U.S. Labor History,” 54 American Sociological Rev. 873–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jarvis, Robert M., Closen, Michael L., Hermann, Donald H.J., & Leonard, Arthur S. (1991) AIDS Law in a Nutshell. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Jonsen, Albert R., & Stryker, Jeff (1993) The Social Impact of AIDS in the United States. Washington: National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Kairys, David (1982) “Introduction,” in Kairys, D., ed., The Politics of Law: A Progressive Critique. New York: Pantheon.Google Scholar
Kelman, Mark (1987) A Guide to Critical Legal Studies. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
King, Gary (1989) Unifying Political Methodology: The Likelihood Theory of Statistical Inference. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Laumann, Edward O., & Knoke, David (1987) The Organizational State: Social Policy in National Policy Domains. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Leonard, Arthur S. (1993) “Discrimination,” in Burris et al. 1993.Google Scholar
Levi, Edward H. (1949) An Introduction to Legal Reasoning. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mather, Lynn, & Yngvesson, Barbara (1980-81) “Language, Audience and the Transformation of Disputes,” 15 Law & Society Rev. 15:775–821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClain, Charles (1988) “Of Medicine, Race and American Law: The Bubonic Plague Outbreak of 1900,” 13 Law of Social Inquiry 447–514.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Merry, Sally Engle (1990) Getting Justice and Getting Even: Legal Consciousness among Working-Class Americans. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Merry, Sally Engle, & Silbey, Susan (1984) “What Do Plaintiffs Want? Reexamining the Concept of Dispute,” 9 Justice System J. 151–78.Google Scholar
Moore, Sally Falk (1978) Law as Process: An Anthropological Approach. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Morris, R. J. (1976) Cholera 1832: The Social Response to an Epidemic. New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers.Google Scholar
Musheno, Michael (1994) “Introductory Essay: Socio-legal Dynamics of AIDS,” 16 Law & Policy 235–48.Google Scholar
Musheno, Michael (1995) “Legal Consciousness on the Margins of Society: Struggles against Stigmatization in the AIDS Crisis,” 2 Identities: Global Studies in Culture & Power 101–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musheno, Michael C., Gregware, Peter R., & Drass, Kriss A. (1991) “Court Management of AIDS Disputes: A Sociolegal Analysis,” 16 Law & Social Inquiry 737–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nelkin, Dorothy, & Gilman, Sander L. (1988) “Placing Blame for Devastating Disease,” 55 Social Research 361–78.Google ScholarPubMed
Odets, Walt (1994) “AIDS Education and Harm Reduction for Gay Men: Psychological Approaches for the 21st Century,” 9 AIDS & Social Policy J. 3–15.Google Scholar
Padgug, Robert A., & Oppenheimer, Gerald M. (1992) “Riding the Tiger: AIDS and the Gay Community,” in Fee & Fox 1992b.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palumbo, Dennis, Musheno, Michael, & Hallett, Michael (1994) “The Political Construction of Alternative Dispute Resolution and Alternatives to Incarceration,” 17 Evaluation & Program Planning 197–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenberg, Charles E. (1962) The Cholera Years: The United States in 1832, 1849, and 1866. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Charles E. (1988) “The Definition and Control of Disease,” 55 Social Research 327–30.Google Scholar
Ross, Judith Wilson (1988) “Ethics and Language of AIDS,” in Pierce, C. & Van de Veer, D., eds., AIDS, Ethics and Public Policy. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.Google Scholar
Rowland, C. K., & Carp, Robert A. (1996) Politics and Judgement in Federal District Courts. Lawrence: Univ. of Kansas Press.Google Scholar
Rushing, William A. (1995) The AIDS Epidemic: Social Dimensions of an Infectious Disease. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Sarat, Austin (1984) “The Maturation of Political Jurisprudence,” 36 Western Political Science Rev. 551–58.Google Scholar
Schneider, Anne, & Ingram, Helen (1993) “Social Construction of Target Populations: Implications for Politics and Policy,” 87 American Political Science Rev. 334–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shilts, Randy (1987) And the Band Played on: Politics, People and the AIDS Epidemic. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Siegelman, Peter, & Donohue, John J. III (1990) “Studying the Iceberg from Its Tip: A Comparison of Published and Unpublished Employment Discrimination Cases,” 24 Law & Society Rev. 1133–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Singer, Eleanor, Rogers, Theresa, & Corcoran, Mary (1987) “The Polls—a Report,” 50 Public Opinion Q. 580–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Rogers M. (1988) “Political Jurisprudence, the ”New Institutionalism,“ and the Future of Public Law,” 82 American Political Science Rev. 89–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Songer, Donald R. (1988) “Nonpublication in the U.S. District Courts: Official Criteria versus Inferences from Appellate Review,” 50 J. of Politics 206–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sontag, Susan (1990) Illness as Metaphor and AIDS and Its Metaphors. New York: Doubleday Anchor.Google Scholar
Spector, Malcom, & Kitsuse, John I. (1977) Constructing Social Problems. Menlo Park, CA: Cummings.Google Scholar
Stookey, John A. (1990) “Trials and Tribulations: Crisis, Litigation, and Legal Change,” 24 Law & Society Rev. 497–520.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sutherland, Ian (1972) “When Was the Great Plague? Mortality in London, 1563–1665,” in Glass, D. V. & Revelle, R., eds., Population and Social Change. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Trubek, David M., & Esser, John P. (1989) “‘Critical Empiricism’ in American Legal Studies: Paradox, Program, or Pandora's Box?” 14 Law & Social Inquiry 3–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tushnet, Mark (1984) “Critical Legal Studies and Constitutional Law: An Essay in Deconstruction,” 36 Stanford Law Rev. 623–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Unger, Roberto Mangabeira (1986) The Critical Legal Studies Movement. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Wallace, Joyce (1989) “Case Presentation of AIDS in the United States,” in Ma, P. & Armstrong, D., eds., AIDS and Infections of Homosexual Men. 2d Ed. Boston: Butterworth.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Stanton, Cartwright, Bliss, Kagan, Robert A., & Friedman, Lawrence M. (1987) “Do the ‘Haves’ Come out Ahead? Winning and Losing in State Supreme Courts, 1870–1970,” 21 Law & Society Rev. 403–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yngvesson, Barbara (1988) “Making Law at the Doorway: The Clerk, the Court and the Construction of Community in a New England Town,” 22 Law & Society Rev. 409–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Cases

Board of Education v. Cooperman, 507 A.2d 253 (N.J. Super. A.D. 1986).Google Scholar
Chalk v. U.S. District Court, 840 F.2d 701 (CA9 Cal. 1988).Google Scholar
Child v. Spillane, 866 F.2d 691 (4th Cir. 1989).Google Scholar
Child by Parent v. Spillane, 875 F.2d 314 (E.D. Va. 1989).Google Scholar
City of New York v. New St. Mark's Baths, 497 N.Y.S. 2d 979 (Supp. 1986).Google Scholar
Cooper v. State, 539 So. 2d 508 (Fla. App. 1 Dist. 1989).Google Scholar
Cutler v. Graduate Hospital, 717 F.Supp. 338 (E.D. Pa. 1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
District 27 Community School Board v. Board of Education, 502 N.Y.S. 2d 325 (Supp. 1986).Google Scholar
Doe v. American Red Cross Blood Services, 377 S.E. 2d 323 (S.C. 1989).Google Scholar
Doe v. Coughlin, 505 N.Y.S. 2d 534 (Supp. 1986).Google Scholar
Dunn v. White, 880 F.2d 1188 (10th Cir. 1989).Google Scholar
Hawley v. Evans, 716 F. Supp. 601 (N.D. Ga. 1989).Google Scholar
In re Peacock, 59 B.R. 568 (Bankr. S.D.Fla. 1986).Google Scholar
Martinez v. School Board, 711 F. Supp. 1066 (M.D. Fla. 1989).Google Scholar
McKee v. Miles Laboratories, 675 F. Supp. 1060 (E.D. Ky. 1987).Google Scholar
Miles Laboratories v. Doe, 556 A.2d 1107 (Md. 1989).Google Scholar
People v. Alderson, 540 N.Y.S.2d 948 (N.Y. City Crim. Ct. 1989).Google Scholar
Ray v. School District, 666 F. Supp. 1524 (M.D. Fla. 1987).Google Scholar
Raytheon Co. v. Fair Employment & Housing Commission, 261 Cal. Rptr. 197 (Cal. App. 2 Dist. 1989).Google Scholar
School Board of Nassau County v. Arline, 107 S.Ct. 1123 (1987).Google Scholar
Shelvin v. Lykos, 741 S.W. 2d 178 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1987).Google Scholar
Smith v. Emery, 42 N.Y.S. 258 (1896).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suburban Video v. City of Delafield, 694 F. Supp. 585 (E.D. Wis. 1988).Google Scholar
Thomas v. Atascadero Unified School District, 662 F. Supp. 376 (C.D. Cal. 1987).Google Scholar
Two Associates v. Brown, 513 N.Y.S.2d 966 (A.D. 1 Dept. 1987).Google Scholar
United States v. Moore, 669 F. Supp. 289 (D. Minn. 1987).Google Scholar
Ware v. Valley Stream High School District, 545 N.Y.S. 2d 316 (A.D. 2 Dept. 1989).Google Scholar

Statute

Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (codified at 29 U.S.C. sec. 701 et seq. (1988)).Google Scholar