Doctoral Dissertation Research: Shaping the Content of Majority Opinions on the U.S. Supreme Court

博士论文研究：塑造美国最高法院多数意见的内容

• 批准号: 1228458
• 负责人: Ryan Black
• 金额: $ 2.52万
• 依托单位: Michigan State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-08-15 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1228458&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Shaping; Content

The arguments contained within Supreme Court majority opinions determine legal policy. However, it remains unclear precisely who the most influential member is within each majority coalition. Existing research presents competing hypotheses about the most influential member on the Court, with many models predicting convergence to a single median member, while others suggest that the opinion author herself retains significant control. Despite these conflicting predictions, data to disentangle them do not exist. This project aims to address this deficiency by obtaining copies of each circulated majority opinion draft on the U.S. Supreme Court during the seventeen terms of the Burger Court. These data will supplement the Burger Court Opinion Writing Database, which contains information on all memoranda and opinion drafts that the justices circulated to their colleagues between the 1969 and 1985 terms. These data will be the basis for the creation of a new measure of accommodation on the Court. Using advances in text analysis software, and coding accommodation by matching explicit bargaining actions with changes in the content of the majority opinion drafts, this approach shows whose expressed preferences are incorporated into the opinion and provides the first empirical test to determine which members of the Court are influential in shaping the opinion content. As it will provide an unprecedented look into the opinion writing process, this project promises to improve our understanding of the collegial interactions that produce the Court's opinion. Combining these data with information on institutional factors, justice characteristics, and case facts, this research will provide insight into the development of the legal opinions that shape national policy. The new data will advance our understanding of the development of law, while carefully exploring the strategic actions by members of a collegial body constrained by its own membership, inter- and intra-branch politics, and legal considerations.The database from this project will be made available to scholars, allowing wide scholarly participation in reconsideration of strategies of Supreme Court decisionmaking.

最高法院多数意见中的论点决定了法律政策。然而，目前尚不清楚在每个多数联盟中谁是最有影响力的成员。现有的研究对最高法院最有影响力的成员提出了相互矛盾的假设，许多模型预测会趋同于一个中间成员，而另一些模型则表明，意见书作者本人保留着重要的控制权。尽管有这些相互矛盾的预测，但理清它们的数据并不存在。本项目旨在通过获取汉堡法院十七届任期内美国最高法院每一份传阅的多数意见草案的副本来解决这一缺陷。这些数据将补充伯格法院意见书撰写数据库，该数据库包含1969年至1985年期间大法官们分发给同事的所有备忘录和意见书的信息。这些数据将成为在法院内建立一种新的迁就措施的基础。利用先进的文本分析软件，并通过将明确的议价行为与多数意见草案内容的变化相匹配来编码调整，这种方法显示了谁的表达偏好被纳入了意见，并提供了第一个实证检验，以确定法院哪些法官在形成意见内容方面具有影响力。由于该项目将对意见书撰写过程提供前所未有的研究，因此有望增进我们对产生最高法院意见书的合议庭相互作用的理解。将这些数据与有关制度因素、司法特征和案件事实的信息相结合，本研究将深入了解影响国家政策的法律意见的发展。新的数据将促进我们对法律发展的理解，同时仔细探索受其自身成员资格、部门间和内部政治以及法律考虑因素限制的合议制机构成员的战略行动。这个项目的数据库将提供给学者，使学术界广泛参与最高法院决策战略的重新审议。