ATHENS, Ohio -- More than 70 percent of the U.S. Supreme Court's decisions during the terms of presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson were liberal. But during the terms of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, liberal decisions by the court dipped below 30 percent.
It may not come as a surprise to many Americans, but the politics of Congress and the president do influence Supreme Court justices' rulings in criminal cases, according to a new Ohio University study.
A review of criminal cases over 40 years indicates the political makeup of Congress and the party affiliation of the president play a role in the way the court rules in criminal cases, according to Tony Caporale, associate professor of economics at Ohio University and co-author of the study.
"Supreme Court justices basically have tenure for life and it is presumed they are insulated from any kind of pressure," Caporale says. "Much of the analysis of U.S. Supreme Court decision-making has excluded political change as possible factors influencing court rulings. It seems weird the literature hasn't addressed this to any extent.
"We found that the more liberal the Congress, the more liberal the court's decisions. And when there were Republicans in the White House, the justices tended to rule more conservatively," Caporale says.
For the study, Caporale and co-author Harold Winter, also an associate professor of economics at Ohio University, reviewed 1,185 Supreme Court criminal cases from 1953 to 1993 as compiled in the U.S. Supreme Court Judicial Database used by legal scholars.
Traditionally, legal scholars have viewed decisions in favor of the individual as "liberal" and those in favor of the prosecution as "conservative." Caporale and Winter applied these views to their study, in which they equated liberal decisions with the viewpoints of Democrats and conservative decisions with Republicans, based on political tradition.
The court's decisions tended to be more conservative both during Republican presidencies and when justices appointed by Republican presidents were in the majority. The study also found that liberal decisions by the court mirrored Americans for Democratic Action scores of the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over the court's budget and some proceedings. The organization rates members of Congress as liberal or conservative based on their votes on certain issues.
"The whole point is that the Supreme Court is in no sense an independent organization," Caporale says. "We aren't saying politics is the only thing that matters, but we are saying political constraints do matter. There is direct and indirect pressure."
The study was published in a recent issue of the publication Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. Caporale and Winter hold appointments in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Written by Dwight Woodward
Journal
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization