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The Influence of Congressional Preferences on Legislative Overrides of Supreme Court Decisions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Alicia Uribe ,
James F. Spriggs II  and
Thomas G. Hansford
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Abstract

Studies of Court–Congress relations assume that Congress overrides Court decisions based on legislative preferences, but no empirical evidence supports this claim. Our first goal is to show that Congress is more likely to pass override legislation the further ideologically removed a decision is from pivotal legislative actors. Second, we seek to determine whether Congress rationally anticipates Court rejection of override legislation, avoiding legislation when the current Court is likely to strike it down. Third, most studies argue that Congress only overrides statutory decisions. We contend that Congress has an incentive to override all Court decisions with which it disagrees, regardless of their legal basis. Using data on congressional overrides of Supreme Court decisions between 1946 and 1990, we show that Congress overrides Court decisions with which it ideologically disagrees, is not less likely to override when it anticipates that the Court will reject override legislation, and acts on preferences regardless of the legal basis of a decision. We therefore empirically substantiate a core part of separation-of-powers models of Court–Congress relations, as well as speak to the relative power of Congress and the Court on the ultimate content of policy.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 921 - 945
Copyright
© 2014 Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

We presented a previous version of this paper at the 2013 Midwest Political Science Association Meeting, April 11–14, 2013, Chicago, IL. We thank Eve Ringquist and Nate Monroe for helpful comments. Research assistance was provided by Ben Goodhue, Adam Kook, Chris Nanamura, Coell Simmons, Madison Simmons, and Anthony Valenti. Hansford recognizes funding from a UC Merced Academic Senate Faculty Research Grant. Spriggs recognizes funding from the National Science Foundation (Law and Social Science, SES-0550451).

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