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The courts, congress, and the politics of federal jurisdiction

Curry, Brett W.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1124055554

Abstract Details

2005, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Political Science.
Although the institutional relationship between the federal courts and Congress has been the subject of substantial empirical research, scholars know relatively little about the specific role that jurisdiction plays in structuring that relationship. Most prior scholarship has focused on ways in which Congress has attempted to use its influence over court structure and judicial personnel to impact the federal courts. However, Congress’s ability to expand or limit the types of cases eligible for federal court review has received much less attention. By analyzing congressional efforts to limit federal jurisdiction in two major areas of law, this dissertation sheds light on jurisdiction’s role in the relationship between these governmental branches and, more generally, the degree of autonomy from congressional oversight that the federal judiciary possesses. The dissertation’s assessment of this jurisdictional activity begins with a technical area of federal statutory jurisdiction known as diversity jurisdiction. There, I examine the impact that judicial outcomes, court caseloads, and group involvement have played in motivating congressional attempts to limit diversity jurisdiction’s scope. I conclude that, while administrative caseload factors have accounted for much of Congress’s jurisdictional activity in this area of statutory law, dissatisfaction with federal court outcomes has also contributed to Congress’s jurisdictional activity in a more limited way. The dissertation then moves to an analysis of congressional attempts to curtail federal jurisdiction over certain areas of constitutional law. I assess the impact of judicial outcomes, public opinion, Congress’s ideological preferences, and several related factors on the intensity with which legislators have sought to exclude certain constitutional claims from the purview of the federal courts since the 1950s. The results of these analyses indicate that the tenor of federal judicial outcomes, the preferences of the general public, and the likelihood of judicial reversal all relate to the intensity with which members of Congress pursue this jurisdiction- or court-stripping legislation. Taken together, the dissertation’s results suggest that jurisdictional politics may be more critical to the relationship between the federal courts and Congress than most scholars have acknowledged. At a minimum, the dissertation’s results intimate that separation-of-powers models of the courts and Congress cannot be complete without an acknowledgement of jurisdiction’s potential importance to the relationship between these two institutions.
Lawrence Baum (Advisor)
421 p.
Political Science, General
Jurisdiction&160; &8211; United States; Judicial process&160; &8211; United States; Federal Jurisdiction&160; &8211; United States; Diversity of Citizenship; Diversity Jurisdiction; Court-Stripping; Jurisdiction-Stripping

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Curry, B. W. (2005). The courts, congress, and the politics of federal jurisdiction [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1124055554

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Curry, Brett. The courts, congress, and the politics of federal jurisdiction. 2005. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1124055554.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Curry, Brett. "The courts, congress, and the politics of federal jurisdiction." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1124055554

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1124055554
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© 2005, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.