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

法院是制定议程，还是只是对其他机构的政策关注做出反应，这是社会科学家和法律学者尚未解决的问题，也是对政策制定者具有重要影响的问题。例如，通过使用法院，利益集团是否鼓励人们关注他们喜欢的政策？通过诉讼，公民获得了政府的关注吗？这些问题和其他问题是一个更大的谜题的一部分：联邦法院在政策过程中扮演什么角色？在这一点上，出现了两种不同的观点。第一种观点认为，法院是政策的被动实施者，法院的注意力紧跟在其他机构的注意力之后。与这种观点相反，一项新出现的文献表明，诉讼当事人和利益集团可以利用法院主动地将问题的注意力转移到多个决策机构。为了解决这些问题，这项研究首次对联邦司法机构的问题关注进行了全面、长期的研究。调查员调查了联邦法院内诉讼当事人、法官和利益集团对问题关注的变化，并记录了他们在法院内和法院之间的关系。在司法之外，作者测试了相互竞争的理论，即国会和行政部门如何影响或受到法律体系内行为者对问题的关注。通过这样做，该项目为研究联邦法院的等级关系以及法院在政策进程中的作用作出了独特的贡献。此外，这项研究提供的数据为研究司法政治、利益集团、议程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，法院在确定问题注意力方面是否具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管理人员来说，拟议的研究和由此产生的数据也将是潜在的兴趣。

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.