Checking the Courts

Kirk A. Randazzo is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of South Carolina and author of Defenders of Liberty or Champions of Security? Federal Courts, the Hierarchy of Justice, and U.S. Foreign Policy, also published by SUNY Press. Richard W. Waterman is Professor of Political Science at the University of Kentucky and the author of several books, including The Changing American Presidency: New Perspectives on Presidential Power.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgments1. IntroductionAnecdotal Evidence of Statutory Influence on JudgesSystematic Statutory Influences on Judicial BehaviorMeasuring Legal FactorsOrganization of the Book2. Theoretical FoundationsApproaches to Interpretation and the Canons of Statutory ConstructionSeparation of Powers ModelsInfluence of Law and Ideology on Judicial BehaviorPlacing Judicial Decision Making into a Broader Theoretical ContextThe Model of Contingent DiscretionOperationalization of Statutory DiscretionConclusions3. U.S. Courts of AppealsHistorical Development of the Federal Appellate CourtsAnecdotal Evidence from Appeals Court JudgesEmpirical Analysis of Statutory InfluenceCircuit-Specific Analyses of Statutory InfluenceAn Alternative SpecificationConclusions4. The U.S. Supreme CourtHistorical Development of the Supreme CourtAnecdotal Evidence from Supreme Court JusticesEmpirical Evidence Analysis of Statutory InfluenceJustice-Specific Analyses of Statutory InfluenceAn Alternative SpecificationExamination of Statutes Under Judicial ReviewCorollary Analysis of Statutes and Unanimous DecisionsConclusions5. State Supreme CourtsInfluence of Law and Ideology on State Supreme CourtsAnecdotal Evidence from State Court JudgesEmpirical Analysis of Statutory InfluenceCorollary Analysis of Statutes and Judicial Elections/AppointmentsConclusions6. Temporal Analysis of Supreme Court BehaviorThe Temporal Nature of the LawEvolution of Congressional Statutory LanguageEmpirical Analysis of Statutory Influence versus Judicial AnnotationsCorollary Analysis of Statutes and Unanimous DecisionsConclusions7. Toward a New ParadigmSummary of Empirical EvidenceTheoretical and Substantive ImplicationsImportant CaveatsRemaining QuestionsAppendixNotesReferencesIndex

"Checking the Courts presents a way of conceptualizing how both the expressed preferences of lawmakers and a judge's own ideology influence judicial behavior, an idea that will interest any student of the judiciary." — Harvard Law Review"…the authors deserve much credit for the extensive and unquestionably time-consuming research reported in this book." — Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books