The puzzle of unanimity
Subtitle: consensus on the United States Supreme Court
By: Pamela C. Corley, Amy Steigerwalt, and Artemus Ward
Contributors: Steigerwalt, Amy, 1976- author; Ward, Artemus, 1971- author
Publisher: Stanford Law Books
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 201
ISBN-13: 9780804784726
Subjects: United States; Judicial process; Consensus (Social sciences); United States. Supreme Court
Description: "The U.S. Supreme Court typically rules on cases that present complex legal questions. Given the challenging nature of its cases and the popular view that the Court is divided along ideological lines, it's commonly assumed that the Court routinely hands down equally-divided decisions. Yet the justices actually issue unanimous decisions in approximately one third of the cases they decide. Drawing on data from the U.S. Supreme Court database, internal court documents, and the justices' private papers, The Puzzle of Unanimity provides the first comprehensive account of how the Court reaches consensus. Pamela Corley, Amy Steigerwalt, and Artemus Ward propose and empirically test a theory of consensus; they find consensus is a function of multiple, concurrently-operating forces that cannot be fully accounted for by ideological attitudes. In this thorough investigation, the authors conclude that consensus is a function of the level of legal certainty and its ability to constrain justices' ideological preferences." -- Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-196) and index.
Table of contents: title: The Roosevelt court : the critical juncture from consensus to dissensus; title: Closing the jaws of the decision-making vise : a theory and model of consensus; title: A function of design : consensus in votes on the merits; title: Monolithic solidarity : consensus in opinion writing; title: An opportunity to clarify : unanimity and agenda setting; title: Conclusion.