Acclimation Effects and the Chief Justice: The Influence of Tenure and Role on the Decisional Behavior of the Court's Leader, 1888-2007

    Authors

    D. N. Lanier

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Am. Polit. Res.

    Keywords

    U.S Supreme Court; judicial behavior; chief justice; acclimation effect; court appointees; associate justices; STATES-SUPREME-COURT; MAJORITY OPINION ASSIGNMENT; FRACTIONAL-INTEGRATION METHODS; PERSONAL ATTRIBUTE MODELS; CONSENSUAL; NORMS; REHNQUIST COURT; LONG MEMORY; TIME-SERIES; POLITICAL-SCIENCE; STRATEGIC CHOICE; Political Science

    Abstract

    Under the acclimation effect view, recent appointees to the Court modify their behavior in systematic ways early in their tenure as opposed to their later decisional tendencies. Similarly, many studies have examined the chief justice's unique behavior. his study blends these two rich strands and explores whether chief justices demonstrate an acclimation effect, such that their behavior changes systematically through time. Using more than a century of Court data, this study examines whether new chief justices' concurrence and dissent rates decline and whether they write fewer individual opinions gradually. I find that the chief justice's position serves to create an incentive structure that is uniquely associated with declining rates of specially concurring and dissenting votes in certain cases. Also, new chief justices pen fewer special concurrences and dissents in some policy areas. My results hence imply that the chief justice experiences unique acclimation effects in learning to marshal the Court.

    Journal Title

    American Politics Research

    Volume

    39

    Issue/Number

    4

    Publication Date

    1-1-2011

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    682

    Last Page

    723

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000292083400003

    ISSN

    1532-673X

    Share

    COinS