Majority Rule or Minority Will: Adherence to Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court

Majority Rule or Minority Will: Adherence to Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court
ISBN-10
052162424X
ISBN-13
9780521624244
Category
Political Science
Pages
378
Language
English
Published
1999-03-28
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Authors
Jeffrey A. Segal, Harold J. Spaeth

Description

This book examines the influence of precedent on the behavior of the US Supreme Court justices throughout the Court's history. Supreme Court justices almost always "follow" precedent, in that they always cite precedents for the positions they take. Because there are always precedents on either side of a case for justices to follow, following precedent does not mean that the justices are ever influenced by precedent. Employing the assumption that for precedent to be an influence on the behavior of justices, it must lead to a result they would not otherwise have reached, the authors show that precedent rarely controls the justices' votes.

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