Friends of the Supreme Court: Interest Groups

The U.S. Supreme Court is a public policy battleground in which organized interests attempt to etch their economic, legal, and political preferences into law through the filing of amicus curiae ("friend of the court") briefs. In Friends of the Supreme Court: Interest Groups and Judicial Decision Making, Paul M. Collins, Jr. explores how organized interests influence the justices' decision making, including how the justices vote and whether they choose to author concurrences and dissents. Collins presents theories of judicial choice derived from disciplines as diverse as law, marketing, political science, and social psychology. This theoretically rich and empirically rigorous treatment of decision-making on the nation's highest court, which represents the most comprehensive examination ever undertaken of the influence of U.S. Supreme Court amicus briefs, provides clear evidence that interest groups play a significant role in shaping the justices' choices.

Paul Collins is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Texas. In 2006, he was awarded the Council of Graduate Schools/University Microfilms International Award for the Most Distinguished Dissertation in the Social Sciences defended between July 2004 and June 2006.

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
An Area of Confusion	p. 4
Moving Forward	p. 10
Plan of the Book	p. 12
Interest Group Litigation	p. 17
Interest Groups Defined	p. 19
The Decision to Litigate	p. 20
Methods of Interest Group Litigation	p. 24
The Goal(s) of Amicus Participation	p. 28
Summary and Conclusions	p. 35
Amicus Curiae Participation in the Supreme Court	p. 37
The History of Amici Curiae: From Friendship to Advocacy	p. 38
Rules and Norms	p. 41
Levels of Amicus Participation	p. 45
Amicus Participation by Issue Area	p. 46
Ideological Positions Advocated by the Amici	p. 50
Who Participates?	p. 56
Types of Information Supplied by Amicus Briefs	p. 63
Summary and Conclusions	p. 71
Amici Curiae and Judicial Decision Making	p. 75
Chapter Overview	p. 80
Models of Judicial Decision Making	p. 82
The Legal Model	p. 82
The Attitudinal Model	p. 86
The Legal and Attitudinal Models: A Shared Characteristic	p. 88
Amici Curiae and Judicial Decision Making: Two Approaches	p. 89
Legal Persuasion and Amici Curiae	p. 89
The Attitudinal Model and Amici Curiae	p. 92
Overview and Clarification	p. 97
Modeling the Influence of Amici Curiae	p. 98
Other Influences on the Ideological Direction of the Vote	p. 103
Empirical Results	p. 106
Summary and Conclusions	p. 113
Amici Curiae and the Consistency of Judicial Decision Making	p. 115
The Importance of Understanding Variability in Decision Making	p. 116
Amici Curiae and the Consistency of Judicial Choice	p. 118
Modeling the Influence of Amici Curiae	p. 122
Other Influences on the Consistency of Judicial Decision Making	p. 124
Empirical Results	p. 127
Summary and Conclusions	p. 137
Amici Curiae and Dissensus on the Supreme Court	p. 139
The Importance of Understanding Separate Opinions	p. 143
Amicus Curiae Briefs: A Misapplied Surrogate for Salience	p. 147
The Influence of Amicus Briefs on Concurrences and Dissents	p. 149
Modeling the Influence of Amici Curiae	p. 154
Other Influences on Dissensus	p. 155
Empirical Results	p. 159
Summary and Conclusions	p. 163
Conclusions and Implications	p. 165
Amicus Participation: The Empirical Findings and Their Normative Implications	p. 167
Amicus Influence: The Empirical Findings and Their Normative Implications	p. 171
Future Research	p. 177
Data and Data Reliability	p. 187
The Kearney and Merrill Database	p. 187
The Original Data Collection	p. 191
Identifying the Liberal and Conservative Nature of the Amicus Curiae Briefs	p. 193
A Final Word on Methodology	p. 195
References	p. 197
Table of Cases	p. 221
Index	p. 225
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Friends of the Supreme Court: Interest Groups and Judicial Decision Making

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