Supreme Court Agenda Setting

Abstract

This research examines the Supreme Court's agenda setting behavior. Specifically, I examine the impact of the external environment on the Supreme Court's certiorari process. It is hypothesized that the Court's behavior during this process is conditional upon: 1) its ideological relationship to Congress and the public, and 2) the types of issues before the Court. I argue that the Court behaves strategically, and that as the Court's ideological distance from other actors increases, it will be more likely to structure its agenda in favor of issues that fall within the Court's domain. Conversely, it is argued that the Court would be less likely to focus on issues within the congressional domain as this distance increases. The results indicate that the Court is engaging in strategic behavior in that the agenda setting process is contingent upon issue type, the Court's relationship to Congress, and the Court's relationship to the public.