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The Supreme Court as a Policy Arena: The Strategies and Tactics of State Attorneys General
Author(s) -
Waltenburg Eric N.,
Swinford Bill
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
policy studies journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.773
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1541-0072
pISSN - 0190-292X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1541-0072.1999.tb01966.x
Subject(s) - supreme court , political science , law , majority opinion , state (computer science) , certiorari , concurring opinion , remand (court procedure) , supreme court decisions , state supreme court , original jurisdiction , algorithm , computer science
Presently, state governments are more active and more successful in the U.S. Supreme Court than at any time since the New Deal. These rates of activity and success are a function of two coincident forces—the emergence of the Republican Court and the increased capacity of the states to pursue their policy goals aggressively before the High Bench. In this analysis, we seek to offer a better‐defined portrait of the states’ evolving advocacy in the Supreme Court. Using archival and survey data, we find that, as a group, the states are more capable Supreme Court litigators, that their perceptions of the Republican Court have encouraged them to increase their pursuit of policy goals through litigation, and that they are “procedurally rational”—i.e., their estimates of success enter into their decisions to engage the Court.