Doctoral Dissertation Research: Agenda Dynamics in the U.S. Federal Courts

法院是制定议程还是仅仅对其他机构的政策关注做出反应，这是社会科学家和法律的学者尚未解决的问题，也是对政策制定者具有重要意义的问题。例如，通过利用法院，利益集团是否鼓励人们关注他们所偏爱的政策？通过诉讼，公民是否获得了政府的关注？这些和其他问题是一个更大的难题的一部分：联邦法院在政策过程中扮演什么角色？关于这一点，出现了两种不同的观点。在第一种观点中，法院是政策的被动执行者，法院的注意力跟随其他机构的注意力。与这种观点相反，一个新兴的文献表明，法院可以被诉讼当事人和利益集团用来主动转移多个决策机构的问题的注意力。为了解决这些问题，这项研究提供了第一个全面的，长期的研究问题的关注整个联邦司法。调查员审查诉讼当事人、法官和利益集团在联邦法院内关注问题的变化，并记录他们在法院内和法院之间的关系。在司法之外，作者测试了国会和行政分支如何影响或受到法律的系统内行为者对问题的关注的相互竞争的理论。在这样做的过程中，这个项目提供了一个独特的贡献，研究的等级关系的联邦法院以及法院在政策过程中的作用。此外，研究提供的数据为司法政治、利益集团、法院设置和政策过程的学者提供了大量资源。更广泛地说，对于设计广泛战略以影响公共政策的诉讼当事人和团体来说，法院在决定问题关注方面是否有影响力具有可怕的影响。 对于负责监督司法程序的法官和法院行政人员来说，拟议的研究和由此产生的数据也可能有意义。

Whether courts set the agenda or simply react to policy attention in other institutions is a question unresolved by social scientists and legal scholars, and one with important implications for policymakers. For example, by using the courts, do interest groups encourage attention for their preferred policies? Through litigation, do citizens gain the attention of government? These and other questions are part of a larger puzzle: what part do federal courts play in the policy process? On this, two separate perspectives have emerged. In the first view, the courts are passive implementers of policy, with attention in the courts following attention in other institutions. Contrary to this perspective, an emerging literature suggests the courts can be used by litigants and interest groups to proactively shift issue attention across multiple policymaking institutions. To address these questions, this research offers the first comprehensive, long-term study of issue attention across the federal judiciary. The investigator examines change in the issue attention of litigants, judges and interest groups within the federal courts and documents their relationships within and across courts. Beyond the judiciary, the author tests competing theories of how Congress and the executive branch impact, or are impacted by, the issue attention of actors within the legal system. In doing so, this project offers a unique contribution to studies of the hierarchical relationships of federal courts as well as the role of courts in the policy process. Moreover, the data provided by the study offer a substantial resource for scholars of judicial politics, interest groups, agenda-setting, and the policy process. More broadly, for litigants and groups designing broad strategies to influence public policy, whether or not the courts are influential in determining issue attention has dire implications. For judges and court administrators who are responsible for oversight of the judicial process, the proposed research and resultant data will also be of potential interest.