Description
Book SynopsisHow do Supreme Court justices decide their cases? Do they follow their policy preferences? Or are they constrained by the law and by other political actors? By showing how law and politics interact in the construction of American law, this book sheds light on the role that the Supreme Court plays in the constitutional order.
Trade ReviewHonorable Mention for the 2012 C. Herman Pritchett Award, Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association "[I]n The Constrained Court, Michael Bailey and Forrest Maltzman have launched a frontal assault on the citadel. Their book is a tour de force that will likely supplant the attitudinal model and become a basis for a new paradigm for understanding decision making... I want to underline that is one of the most important studies in the field in the last decade. Neither Bailey nor Maltzman is a trained public law scholar, which makes it so infuriating that they have written such a path breaking study. The book should be mandatory for public law scholars and graduate students and highly recommended, as the authors suggest, for Chief Justice John Roberts."--Richard L. Pacelle, Jr., Law and Politics Book Review "The Constrained Court challenge[s] established paradigms in [its] fields, introduce[s] inventive and original research and seek[s] to transform the ways in which we think and talk about the nature of judging. It is a testament to the energy imagination, and erudition of the authors that they can legitimately take credit for having advanced these objectives."--Bruce G, Peabody, Perspectives on Politics "If you want a sophisticated account of judicial decision making that integrates PPT with serious consideration of the role of law, the book you want to buy is The Constrained Court by Bailey and Maltzman. It integrates pivotal politics models with a two dimensional model of judging that represents legal preferences in a rigorous way. The Constrained Court is rigorous and illuminating."--Larry Solum, Harvard Law Review
Table of ContentsPreface ix Chapter 1. Introduction 1 Chapter 2. The Measure of Law: Estimating Preferences across Institutions and Time 17 Part I. Legal Value Constraints Chapter3. Disentangling Law and Policy Preferences 47 Chapter 4. Law Matters 64 Chapter 5. Causes and Consequences of Diverse Legal Values 80 Part II. Political Constraints Chapter 6. Separation of Powers and the Strategic Constraint 95 Chapter 7. Signals from the Executive 121 Chapter 8. Conclusion 140 Appendix. Statistical Details 156 Notes 175 References 185 Index 203
