Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


osu1180455617.pdf (787.06 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Interactions Between Congress and the Supreme Court

Ivanchenko, Roman
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1180455617

Abstract Details

2007, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Political Science.
The scholarship on the interactions between Congress and Supreme Court typically incorporates two assumptions: Congress has the final word so that legislative actions constrain the Court and both congressional and judicial actions are motivated almost solely by ideological considerations. However, by enacting statutes, Congress acts first, and the Court responds to challenges to those statutes in cases brought by dissatisfied litigants. Further, the Supreme Court typically has the last word in constitutional cases. Second, both members of Congress and Supreme Court Justices benefit from achieving policy that is successful and consistent with their ideological preferences. This dissertation develops a framework that incorporates these departures. The theory argues that Congress is the constrained branch in constitutional interactions. It conceptualizes each statute as consisting of two components: its ideological content and its suitability – its effectiveness in achieving the goals that underlie it. Having the power to make law, Congress has to anticipate whether the Court would invalidate a prospective statute. If necessary, Congress will temper the ideological content of its legislation, or it will attempt to increase the suitability of the statute. The Supreme Court can accept trade-offs of increased suitability for lower ideological benefits. I conduct four empirical analyses. First, I test whether ideology and a statute’s suitability influence judicial decisions to uphold or invalidate statutes. The second analysis reexamines these decisions in conjunction with the Court’s decisions to review challenges to federal laws. The third analysis examines the impact of ideology and suitability on the fate of federal statutes over time. The final analysis focuses on statutes to determine whether and how the threat of judicial invalidation influences the suitability component of statutes. The findings support the theoretical model proposed in this dissertation. The empirical analyses agree with the existing research that ideology plays an important role in judicial decision making. However, the suitability component of a federal statute also influences the probability of judicial invalidation and whether the Court grants a writ of certiorari. Additionally, the findings suggest that when Congress makes law, its efforts to ensure the suitability of federal statutes are affected by Supreme Court preferences.
Lawrence Baum (Advisor)
254 p.
Political Science, General
United States Supreme Court; Congress; judicial decision making

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ivanchenko, R. (2007). Interactions Between Congress and the Supreme Court [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1180455617

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ivanchenko, Roman. Interactions Between Congress and the Supreme Court. 2007. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1180455617.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ivanchenko, Roman. "Interactions Between Congress and the Supreme Court." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1180455617

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1180455617
1,682
© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.