Replication Data for Quality Over Quantity: Amici Influence and Judicial Decision Making (ICPSR 34838)

Version Date: Aug 7, 2013

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Principal Investigator(s):
Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier, The Ohio State University; Dino P. Christenson, Boston University; Matthew Hitt, The Ohio State University

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34838.v1

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Summary

Interest groups often make their preferences known on cases before the U.S. Supreme Court via amicus curiae briefs. In evaluating the case and related arguments, we posit that judges take into account more than just the number of supporters for the liberal and conservative positions. Specifically, judges' decisions may also reflect the relative power of the groups. We use network position to measure interest group power in U.S. Supreme Court cases from 1946 to 2001. We find that the effect of interest group power is minimal in times of heavily advantaged cases. However, when the two sides of a case are approximately equal in the number of briefs, such power is a valuable signal to judges. We also show that justice ideology moderates the effect of liberal interest group power. The results corroborate previous findings on the influence of amicus curiae briefs and add a nuanced understanding of the conditions under which the quality and reputation of interest groups matter, not just the quantity.

Citation

Box-Steffensmeier, Janet M., Christenson, Dino P., and Hitt, Matthew. Replication Data for Quality Over Quantity: Amici Influence and Judicial Decision Making. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2013-08-07. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34838.v1

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Funding

National Science Foundation (No. 1124386 and No. 1124369.)

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Date of Collection

1946 -- 2001

Data Collection Notes

  1. The zipped package contains Stata files pertaining to the publication.

  2. These data are part of ICPSR's Publication-Related Archive and are distributed exactly as they arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.

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Unit(s) of Observation

individual

Data Type(s)

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Original Release Date

2013-08-07

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Box-Steffensmeier, Janet M., Dino P. Christenson, and Matthew Hitt. Replication Data for Quality Over Quantity: Amici Influence and Judicial Decision Making. ICPSR34838-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2013-08-07. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34838.v1
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Notes

  • These data are flagged as replication datasets and are distributed exactly as they arrived from the data depositor. ICPSR has not checked or processed this material. Users should consult the investigator(s) if further information is desired.

  • The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public. Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.