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Keepers of the Covenant or Platonic Guardians? Decision Making on the U.S. Supreme Court

Georgia Southern University

Bryan W. Marshall, PhD

Miami University

Brett W. Curry, PhD

Georgia Southern University

How do the justices of the Supreme Court make their decisions? How does the Supreme Court of the United States make its decisions? The answer to these questions may not be the same. In studying judicial decision making, there has been a disconnection between individual and institutional levels of analysis. Lifetime tenure insulates individual justices and permits them to act on their substantive preferences. At the same time, the Court lacks the "sword and purse" and must rely on the other branches to fund or implement its directives. This study develops an integrative model to explain Supreme Court decision making. Using constitutional civil liberties and civil rights cases in the 1953 to 2000 period, conditions favorable to the attitudinal model, we find that institutional decision making is a function of attitudinal, strategic, and legal factors.

Key Words: U.S. Supreme Court • judicial politics • judicial independence • the attitudinal model • judicial decision making • constitutional law • precedent • stare decisis

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