Title
Acclimation Effects And The Chief Justice: The Influence Of Tenure And Role On The Decisional Behavior Of The Court'S Leader, 1888-2007
Keywords
acclimation effect; associate justices; chief justice; court appointees; judicial behavior; U.S. Supreme Court
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.This 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. © The Author(s) 2011.
Publication Date
7-1-2011
Publication Title
American Politics Research
Volume
39
Issue
4
Number of Pages
682-723
Document Type
Article
Personal Identifier
scopus
DOI Link
https://doi.org/10.1177/1532673X11401813
Copyright Status
Unknown
Socpus ID
79959643761 (Scopus)
Source API URL
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/79959643761
STARS Citation
Lanier, Drew Noble, "Acclimation Effects And The Chief Justice: The Influence Of Tenure And Role On The Decisional Behavior Of The Court'S Leader, 1888-2007" (2011). Scopus Export 2010-2014. 2523.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/scopus2010/2523