Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Solicitor General and the Supreme Court
- 2 The Office of the Solicitor General: “The Finest Law Firm in the Nation”
- 3 Explanations for Solicitor General Success
- 4 Solicitor General Influence and Agenda Setting
- 5 Solicitor General Influence and Merits Outcomes
- 6 Solicitor General Influence and Briefs
- 7 Solicitor General Influence and Legal Doctrine
- 8 Conclusion
- Appendices
- References
- Index
4 - Solicitor General Influence and Agenda Setting
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1 The Solicitor General and the Supreme Court
- 2 The Office of the Solicitor General: “The Finest Law Firm in the Nation”
- 3 Explanations for Solicitor General Success
- 4 Solicitor General Influence and Agenda Setting
- 5 Solicitor General Influence and Merits Outcomes
- 6 Solicitor General Influence and Briefs
- 7 Solicitor General Influence and Legal Doctrine
- 8 Conclusion
- Appendices
- References
- Index
Summary
We began this book with a behind-the-scenes story from NOW v. Scheidler (1994). The data suggested that Solicitor General Drew Days influenced Justice Sandra Day O'Connor to switch her agenda vote and thereby triggered full Supreme Court review of the case. And in the Nelson case in the previous chapter, it appeared that the Office of the Solicitor General's (OSG's) recommendation led Justice Blackmun to switch his vote. Were these isolated incidents? Did the OSG simply get lucky? Did O'Connor and Blackmun switch their votes by happenstance? Likely not.
In this chapter, we examine whether the OSG influences justices' agenda votes. We analyze how justices respond to OSG recommendations to grant or deny review to cases. Using existing research on judicial agenda setting as our guide, we theorize justices' ex ante preferences in each case. Then, to determine whether the OSG has caused justices to change their votes, we compare their actual votes to their theoretically derived expected votes.
We begin by explaining how the Supreme Court's agenda-setting process operates. We then discuss the conditions under which justices set the Court's agenda. We next hypothesize when and how the OSG can influence justices' agenda votes. After we discuss our data and methods, we present our results and discuss our findings.
THE SUPREME COURT'S AGENDA STAGE
The Court's agenda-setting process begins when a party loses its case in a lower court, wants the Supreme Court to review that decision, and files a petition for a writ of certiorari (or an appeal) with the Supreme Court clerk.
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- Information
- The Solicitor General and the United States Supreme CourtExecutive Branch Influence and Judicial Decisions, pp. 49 - 71Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012