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US Supreme Court Opinions and their Audiences

Ryan C Black author Ryan J Owens author Justin Wedeking author Patrick C Wohlfarth author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:6th Apr '16

Currently unavailable, currently targeted to be due back around 2nd December 2024, but could change

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US Supreme Court Opinions and their Audiences cover

An investigation of how US Supreme Court justices alter the clarity of their opinions based on expected reactions from their audiences.

This book shows the United States Supreme Court instrumentally uses opinion clarity to enhance compliance with its decisions and to circumvent negative audience responses. It employs a unique measure of opinion clarity that scholars can use in numerous contexts and highlights the importance of strategic language use.This book is the first study specifically to investigate the extent to which US Supreme Court justices alter the clarity of their opinions based on expected reactions from their audiences. The authors examine this dynamic by creating a unique measure of opinion clarity and then testing whether the Court writes clearer opinions when it faces ideologically hostile and ideologically scattered lower federal courts; when it decides cases involving poorly performing federal agencies; when it decides cases involving states with less professionalized legislatures and governors; and when it rules against public opinion. The data shows the Court writes clearer opinions in every one of these contexts, and demonstrates that actors are more likely to comply with clearer Court opinions.

'The authors present a careful, creative, and wide-ranging inquiry into the causes and effects of clarity in Supreme Court opinions. Their striking findings about the conditions that lead to greater clarity have important implications for our understanding of how justices think about the writing of opinions.' Larry Baum, Ohio State University
'For generations political scientists have studied who wins and loses in front of the US Supreme Court, focusing on dispute resolution rather than opinions the justices write. In US Supreme Court Opinions and their Audiences four leading political scientists study how the justices manipulate the clarity of opinions in light of their intended audiences, including lower courts, agencies, the states, and the people. This book is a must-read for any empirical legal scholar interested in taking law seriously in positive studies of Supreme Court behavior.' Andrew Martin, University of Michigan

ISBN: 9781107137141

Dimensions: 235mm x 158mm x 16mm

Weight: 430g

196 pages