Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-31T13:54:25.879Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Supreme Court, the President, and Congress

Lawmaking in a Separation-of-Powers System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Paul M. Collins Jr.  and
Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha
Paul M. Collins Jr.*
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA
Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha
Affiliation:
University of North Texas, USA
*
Contact the corresponding author, Paul M. Collins Jr., at [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Presidents may react to Supreme Court decisions by supporting or opposing them in their public rhetoric and by calling on Congress to take action to alter or implement the Court’s decisions. We investigate this unique form of lawmaking using an original database of presidential calls to Congress and congressional reactions. We find that presidents call for congressional action to pursue their policy goals and enhance the power of the presidency; we also find that Congress reacts when it is asked to do so by both the Court and the president, as well as when presidents support the implementation of the Court’s decisions.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , Fall 2022 , pp. 213 - 237
Copyright
© 2022 Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We are grateful to Emilia Beuger, Brian Carchedi, Joe Dolciotto, Thomas Kennedy, Brianna Owen, Andy Richardson, Taylor Smoske, Chelsie Trombly, and Michal Wojewodzic for their assistance with the data collection used in this article. We thank Natalie Rogol, Mark Miller, the anonymous reviewers, and the editor for their very useful feedback on previous versions of this work, and Matt Montgomery, Doug Rice, and Natalie Rogol for sharing their data with us. We presented an earlier version of this research at the 2020 Southern Political Science Association Meeting. Replication materials are available in the JLC Dataverse at https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/jlc.

References

American Presidency Project. 2018. Public Papers of the Presidents. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/.Google Scholar
American Presidency Project. 2019. Public Papers of the Presidents. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/.Google Scholar
Arnold, R. Douglas. 1990. The Logic of Congressional Action. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Barrett, Andrew W. 2004. “Gone Public: The Impact of Going Public on Presidential Legislative Success.” American Politics Research 32: 338–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bermant, Gordon, and Wheeler, Russell R. 1995. “Federal Judges and the Judicial Branch: Their Independence and Accountability.” Mercer Law Review 46: 835–61.Google Scholar
Black, Ryan C., and Owens, Ryan J. 2012. The Solicitor General and the United States Supreme Court: Executive Influence and Judicial Decisions. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackstone, Bethany. 2013. “An Analysis of Policy-Based Congressional Responses to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Constitutional Decisions.” Law and Society Review 47: 199–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blackstone, Bethany, and Goelzhauser, Greg. 2014. “Presidential Rhetoric toward the Supreme Court.” Judicature 97: 179–87.Google Scholar
Bond, Jon R., and Fleisher, Richard. 1990. The President in the Legislative Arena. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Burgess, Susan R. 1992. Contest for Constitutional Authority: The Abortion and War Powers Debate. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.Google Scholar
Bush, George H. W. 1989a. “Remarks at a Luncheon Hosted by the New York Partnership and the Association for a Better New York in New York, New York.” June 22. The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-luncheon-hosted-the-new-york-partnership-and-the-association-for-better-new-york.Google Scholar
Bush, George H. W. 1989b. Transcript of news conference. June 27. The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/the-presidents-news-conference-43.Google Scholar
Bush, George H. W. 1990. “Remarks upon Receiving a Replica of the Iwo Jima Memorial and an Exchange with Reporters.” June 12. The American Presidency Project. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/remarks-upon-receiving-replica-the-iwo-jima-memorial-and-exchange-with-reportersGoogle Scholar
Canes-Wrone, Brandice. 2006. Who Leads Whom? Presidents, Policy, and the Public. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Canon, Bradley C., and Johnson, Charles A. 1999. Judicial Policies: Implementation and Impact. Washington, DC: CQ Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chemerinsky, Erwin. 1997. Interpreting the Constitution. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.Google Scholar
Christiansen, Matthew R., and Eskridge, William N. Jr. 2014. “Congressional Overrides of Supreme Court Statutory Interpretation Decisions, 1967–2011.” Texas Law Review 92: 1317–541.Google Scholar
Clark, Tom S. 2011. The Limits of Judicial Independence. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, Jeffrey E. 2015. Presidential Leadership in Public Opinion: Causes and Consequences. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Paul M. Jr., 2008. Friends of the Supreme Court: Interest Groups and Judicial Decision Making. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Paul M. Jr.,, Corley, Pamela C., and Hamner, Jesse. 2015. “The Influence of Amicus Curiae Briefs on U.S. Supreme Court Opinion Content.” Law and Society Review 49: 917–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, Paul M. Jr.,, and Eshbaugh-Soha, Matthew. 2019. The President and the Supreme Court: Going Public on Judicial Decisions from Washington to Trump. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Covington, Cary R. 1987. “‘Staying Private’: Gaining Congressional Support for Unpublicized Presidential Preferences on Roll Call Votes.” Journal of Politics 49: 737–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cox, Gary W., and McCubbins, Mathew D. 2007. Legislative Leviathan: Party Government in the House. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dow, Jay K., and Endersby, James W. 2004. “Multinomial Probit and Multinomial Logit: A Comparison of Choice Models for Voting Research.” Electoral Studies 23: 107–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, George C. III., 1989. At the Margins: Presidential Leadership of Congress. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Edwards, George C. III,, and Barrett, Andrew. 2000. “Presidential Agenda Setting in Congress.” In Polarized Politics, ed. Bond, Jon R. and Fleisher, Richard, 109–33. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Emenaker, Ryan E. 2013. “Constitutional Interpretation and Congressional Overrides: Changing Trends in Court-Congress Relations.” Journal of Law 3: 197–236.Google Scholar
Epstein, Lee, and Jacobi, Tonja. 2010. “The Strategic Analysis of Judicial Decisions.” Annual Review of Law and Social Science 6:341–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, Lee, and Knight, Jack. 1998. The Choices Justices Make. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Epstein, Lee, Martin, Andrew D., Segal, Jeffrey A., and Westerland, Chad. 2007. “The Judicial Common Space.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 23: 303–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, Lee, and Segal, Jeffrey A. 2000. “Measuring Issue Salience.” American Journal of Political Science 44: 66–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eshbaugh-Soha, Matthew. 2005. “The Politics of Presidential Agendas.” Political Research Quarterly 58: 257–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eshbaugh-Soha, Matthew. 2010. “The Politics of Presidential Speeches.” Congress and the Presidency 37: 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eshbaugh-Soha, Matthew, and Collins, Paul M. Jr. 2015. “Presidential Rhetoric and Supreme Court Decisions.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 45: 633–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eskridge, William N. 1991. “Overriding Supreme Court Statutory Interpretation Decisions.” Yale Law Journal 101: 331–455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenno, Richard Jr., 1978. Home Style: House Members in Their Districts. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.Google Scholar
Fisher, Louis. 2019. Reconsidering Judicial Finality: Why the Supreme Court Is Not the Last Word on the Constitution. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Barry. 2009. The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.Google Scholar
Gant, Scott E. 1997. “Judicial Supremacy and Nonjudicial Interpretation of the Constitution.” Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 24: 359–440.Google Scholar
George, Tracey E., and Solimine, Michael E. 2001. “Supreme Court Monitoring of the United States Courts of Appeals En Banc.” Supreme Court Economic Review 9: 171–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hausegger, Lori, and Baum, Lawrence. 1999. “Inviting Congressional Action: A Study of Supreme Court Motivations in Statutory Interpretation.” American Journal of Political Science 43: 162–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heith, Diane J. 2013. The Presidential Road Show: Public Leadership in an Era of Party Polarization and Media Fragmentation. Boulder, CO: Paradigm.Google Scholar
Holmes, Lisa M. 2008. “Why ‘Go Public’? Presidential Use of Nominees to the U.S. Courts of Appeals.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 38: 110–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Timothy R. 2003. “The Supreme Court, the Solicitor General, and the Separation of Powers.” American Politics Research 31: 426–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, Timothy R. 2004. Oral Arguments and Decision Making on the United States Supreme Court. Albany: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Timothy R., and Roberts, Jason M. 2004. “Presidential Capital and the Supreme Court Confirmation Process.” Journal of Politics 66: 663–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahneman, Daniel, and Tversky, Amos. 1979. “Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk.” Econometrica 47: 263–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kastellec, Jonathan P., and Lax, Jeffrey R. 2008. “Case Selection and the Study of Judicial Politics.” Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 5: 407–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kauper, Paul G. 1952. “The Steel Seizure Case: Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court.” Michigan Law Review 51: 141–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kernell, Samuel. 1997. Going Public: New Strategies of Presidential Leadership. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Kline, Stephan O. 1999. “Judicial Independence: Rebuffing Congressional Attacks on the Third Branch.” Kentucky Law Journal 87: 679–791.Google Scholar
Light, Paul. 1999. The President’s Agenda. 3rd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Luckey, John R. 2009. Flag Protection: A Brief History and Summary of Recent Supreme Court Decisions and Proposed Constitutional Amendments. CRS Report for Congress. https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/95-709.pdf.Google Scholar
Manski, Charles F., and Lerman, Steven R. 1977. “The Estimation of Choice Probabilities from Choice Based Samples.” Econometrica 45 (8): 1977–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, Thomas R. 2008. Public Opinion and the Rehnquist Court. Albany: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Mayhew, David R. 1974. Congress: The Electoral Connection. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Meernik, James, and Ignagni, Joseph. 1997. “Judicial Review and Coordinate Construction of the Constitution.” American Journal of Political Science 41: 447–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Mark C. 2007. “The View of the Courts from the Hill: Governance as Dialogue.” PS: Political Science and Politics 40:179.Google Scholar
Moe, Terry M. 1993. “Presidents, Institutions, and Theory.” In Researching the Presidency: Vital Questions, New Approaches, ed. Edwards, George C. III, Kessel, John H., and Rockman, Bert A., 337–85. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Mouw, Calvin, and MacKuen, Michael. 1992. “The Strategic Configuration, Personal Influence, and Presidential Power in Congress.” Western Political Quarterly 45: 579–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, Walter F. 1986. “Who Shall Interpret? The Quest for the Ultimate Constitutional Interpreter.” Review of Politics 48: 401–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, Michael J., and Uribe-McGuire, Alicia. 2017. “Opportunity and Overrides: The Effect of Institutional Public Support on Congressional Overrides of Supreme Court Decisions.” Political Research Quarterly 70: 632–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicholson, Chris, and Collins, Paul M. Jr. 2008. “The Solicitor General’s Amicus Curiae Strategies in the Supreme Court.” American Politics Research 36: 382–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pacelle, Richard L. Jr., 2003. Between Law and Politics: The Solicitor General and the Structuring of Race, Gender, and Reproductive Rights Litigation. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.Google Scholar
Pacelle, Richard L. Jr., 2006. “Amicus Curiae or Amicus Praesidentis? Reexamining the Role of the Solicitor General in Filing Amici.” Judicature 89: 317–25.Google Scholar
Ponder, Daniel E. 2018. Presidential Leverage: Presidents, Approval, and the American State. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Poole, Keith. 2015. “Common Space Scores Congresses 75–113.” http://voteview.com/readmeb.htm.Google Scholar
Ragsdale, Lyn. 1984. “The Politics of Presidential Speechmaking, 1949–1980.” American Political Science Review 78: 971–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ragsdale, Lyn. 2014. Vital Statistics on the Presidency. 4th ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Redish, Martin H. 1995. “Federal Judicial Independence: Constitutional and Political Perspectives.” Mercer Law Review 46: 697–731.Google Scholar
Rice, Douglas. 2019. “Placing the Ball in Congress’ Court: Supreme Court Requests for Congressional Action.” American Politics Research 47: 803–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ringsmuth, Eve M., and Johnson, Timothy R. 2013. “Supreme Court Oral Arguments and Institutional Maintenance.” American Politics Research 41: 651–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rogol, Natalie C., and Montgomery, Matthew D. 2021. “Seeking Information: When the Court Wants More.” Journal of Law and Courts 9: 49–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rudalevige, Andrew. 2006. The New Imperial Presidency: Renewing Presidential Power after Watergate. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Scigliano, Robert. 1971. The Supreme Court and the Presidency. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Spaeth, Harold, Epstein, Lee, Ruger, Ted, Whittington, Keith, Segal, Jeffrey, and Martin, Andrew D. 2017. The Supreme Court Database. http://scdb.wustl.edu/index.php.Google Scholar
Thrower, Sharece. 2017. “The President, the Court, and Policy Implementation.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 47: 122–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tiefer, Charles. 1992. “The Flag-Burning Controversy of 1989–1990: Congress’ Valid Role in Constitutional Dialogue.” Harvard Journal on Legislation 29: 357–98.Google Scholar
Uribe, Alicia, Spriggs, James F., and Hansford, Thomas G. 2014. “The Influence of Congressional Preferences on Legislative Overrides of Supreme Court Decisions.” Law and Society Review 48: 921–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittington, Keith E. 2001. “Presidential Challenges to Judicial Supremacy and the Politics of Constitutional Meaning.” Polity 33: 365–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Collins and Eshbaugh-Soha supplementary material
Download undefined(File)
File 295.6 KB