Persuading the Supreme Court by Morgan L. W. Hazelton

Author:Morgan L. W. Hazelton [Morgan L. W. Hazelton]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780700633647
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Published: 2022-08-19T00:00:00+00:00

Many Routes to Persuasion

The art of persuasion is a many splendored thing. Scholars have demonstrated that a variety of factors impact Supreme Court decision-making (Johnson, Wahlbeck, and Spriggs 2006; Johnson 2004; Maltzman, Spriggs, and Wahlbeck 2000; Collins 2008). The existence of such factors strongly suggests that the Court is open to various kinds of persuasion. Moreover, many theories have specific implications for possible ways to approach persuading the justices. Informational theory highlights the opportunity to sway justices by showing them how voting for your side will advance their policy preferences (Collins 2004; Epstein and Knight 1999; Hazelton, Hinkle, and Spriggs 2019). Affected groups theory indicates that demonstrating to the justices the extent to which important stakeholders in society support your side may help win the day (Buckler 2015; Collins 2004). This is particularly likely regarding individuals and groups who are invested enough to endure the cost of filing a brief (Caldeira and Wright 1990a; Hazelton, Hinkle, and Spriggs 2019). One strand of repeat player theory posits that sending familiar faces to make your arguments to the Court is beneficial since the justices know such repeat players have greater motivation to be faithful and accurate information providers (McGuire 1995; Szmer and Ginn 2014). In short, there are many possible roads to swaying the Court. We examine three broad classes of persuasion. The first is influence by sheer volume of information provided to the Court. Second, we look at the impact of what types of information are brought and how they are presented. Finally, we explore the role of the characteristics of the filers and attorneys involved in crafting the briefs.

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