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Into the Words: Using Statutory Text to Explore the Impact of Federal Courts on State Policy Diffusion
Author(s) -
Hinkle Rachael K.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
american journal of political science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.347
H-Index - 170
eISSN - 1540-5907
pISSN - 0092-5853
DOI - 10.1111/ajps.12160
Subject(s) - constitutionality , statute , statutory law , state (computer science) , political science , law , court decision , diffusion , law and economics , business , economics , supreme court , computer science , physics , algorithm , thermodynamics
I examine the impact federal appellate courts have on state policy diffusion through the use of computational text analysis. Using a dyadic framework, I model the impact courts have on the decision to adopt a policy and, if adopted, how much text to borrow directly from another state's preexisting law. A court decision ruling a statute unconstitutional can generate up to a 28% relative reduction in the probability of adoption, and a ruling of constitutionality can both increase the probability of adoption by a similar amount and more than double the amount of borrowed text. These findings shed light on how states learn from one another.