商品簡介
It's long been understood that the US Supreme Court influences public policy not only through its decisions, but also through its selection of cases. In this work, Baird (political science, U. of Colorado) steps even farther back and argues that justices signal broad policy priorities which provide incentives to litigants or other "policy entrepreneurs" to craft cases that will appeal to justices' goals. The implication is that the Supreme Court's aggregate policy agenda, "defined by its changing levels of attention to broad policy areas, after some time mirrors previous indications of justices' priorities, as interpreted by members of the litigant community." Baird finds that this process--wherein the court expresses its interest in a policy area, litigants than work to craft cases relevant to that policy areas, lower courts are more willing to craft legal rationales in that area that are then available to the Court, and the groundwork is laid for the Supreme Court to expand its influence in that policy area--works in four- and five-year cycles. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
作者簡介
Vanessa A. Baird is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Colorado.
