American Politics Research

This research examines the relationship between courts and legislatures in a comparative perspective. Specifically, I examine how (a) the ideological composition of the bench, (b) the propensity of court involvement in a given policy area, and (c) the disposition of court decisions in a given policy area influence the ideology of bill introductions and policy enactments by state legislatures. By examining HMO regulation and education policy in the American states during the 1990s, I find evidence that judicial influence does affect legislative policymaking, in both the introduction and enactment stages, across both policy areas. Although traditional scholarship has depicted the judicial branch as having minimal effect on policy formation, and subsequently social change, the findings of this study suggest that we have overlooked an important policymaking role of the judicial branch. Furthermore, state policy research has not given adequate attention to judicial influence as an explanation for policy formation in the American states.

To what extent do lower court judges follow Supreme Court plurality opinions? By examining treatments of Supreme Court cases from the 1976-1986 terms by the Circuit Courts of Appeals from 1976 to 2005, this article addresses the consequences of the Supreme Court's failure to reach a clear majority decision. I find evidence that lower courts are less likely to follow plurality opinions than majority opinions. These findings have implications regarding the authority of the Supreme Court, compliance, and institutional legitimacy.

The issue of devotional activity in the public schools has long been a staple of the U.S. Supreme Court's agenda, but knowledge of the local implementation of school prayer policy remains limited to the Court's earliest decisions. To what extent are schools presently engaged in religious activities prohibited by the Court? This study addresses this question through a survey in which recent high school graduates provided data on the level and types of devotional practices in their schools. The results suggest that there continues to be resistance to the Supreme Court, especially in the South, in rural and less educated communities, and in areas with higher concentrations of conservative Christians.

Through its rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court makes clear what the Constitution means and how best to interpret congressional statutes. But, because Supreme Court rulings do not implement themselves, the Court is dependent on compliance by lower courts to effectuate its policies. Using the concept of jurisprudential regimes developed by Richards and Kritzer in 2002 and specifically the Establishment Clause jurisprudential regime they identified in 2003, we evaluate the extent to which the U.S. Courts of Appeals faithfully implement the Supreme Court's policy in this area of law. We find that decision making by court of appeals panels is indeed structured by the Supreme Court's Establishment Clause jurisprudential regime, even when taking into account the policy preferences of court of appeals judges. Furthermore we find that this attentiveness to legal factors is not a function of circuit court judges' fear of reversal.

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, an unusually large percentage of Americans expressed high levels of confidence in the institutions charged with responding to the terrorist attacks. By the following summer, such confidence had declined significantly. This study draws on data from a panel study conducted in fall 2001 and summer 2002 to track Americans' emotional responses to terrorism and their levels of confidence in government institutions as well as to explore how these phenomena were related. It is focused on whether—and if so, how—the positive emotions of pride and hope influenced confidence in institutions and helped sustain that confidence over time. Positive relationships between hope, pride, and confidence during both study periods are found. Analysis of confidence and emotions over time suggests reciprocal relationships between confidence and hope. Taken as a whole, the findings point to the importance of considering the emotional sources and implications of confidence.

Although politicians prefer to communicate directly with the public, political sound bites in the nightly news are shrinking and primetime presidential press conferences are becoming increasingly uncommon. Instead, people primarily receive the messages of politicians as interpreted by journalists. What are the consequences of this interpretation for how citizens evaluate political messages? This article compares how people evaluate mediated political accounts and those delivered by politicians directly. Using a set of experiments, this article considers whether the power of politicians to inform and persuade people is limited or enhanced through the interpretation of journalists. This article finds that although people respond similarly to message content, whether from the politicians or from the media, evaluations of the message source and political processes are improved when politicians communicate directly with the public.

Previous research has found that the campaigns of candidates running for office provide information to voters and can increase turnout. Scholarly research has also found that states with initiatives and referendums appearing on the ballot have higher voter turnout, especially in midterm elections. However, actual initiative campaigns are rarely measured. Drawing on national survey data and state contextual factors, we use a multilevel modeling strategy to test whether Americans are more likely to vote in recent midterm and presidential elections when there is increased spending in initiative and candidate campaigns, as well as more frequent use of direct democracy. The research includes a number of methodological advancements from earlier work on turnout and direct democracy (including a control for endogeneity) by restricting the analysis to initiative states only. The analysis suggests initiative campaigns not only increase individual level turnout but also especially benefit the lower educated.