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Wiley InterScience | |||||||||||||||||||||
  Law & Social InquiryVolume 32 Issue 4, Pages 955 - 984 Published Online: 24 Oct 2007 © 2009 American Bar Foundation Published on behalf of the American Bar Foundation
Abstract | References | Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 140K) | Related Articles | Citation Tracking  Interest Group Participation, Competition, and Conflict in the U.S. Supreme Court Paul M. Collins, Jr. is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of North Texas. He received his PhD from Binghamton University. His research focuses primarily on appellate court decision making, with a special interest in the role of pressure groups in the courts. He can be contacted at pmcollins@unt.edu. Lisa A. Solowiej is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at Binghamton University and Lecturer in Political Science at the University of North Texas. Her research interests include legislative behavior and procedures, political parties, and interest groups. She can be contacted at lsolowiej@unt.edu. The authors extend their thanks to Tom Brunell, Wendy Martinek, and the anonymous reviewers for their lucid comments and critiques of earlier versions of this article, and Joseph Kearney and Thomas Merrill for generously sharing their data with us. Collins thanks the National Science Foundation for its financial support under grant SES-0350416. Naturally, we assume all responsibility for errors in fact and/or judgment. A previous version of this article was awarded the 2003 CQ Press Award from the Law and Courts section of the American Political Science Association. Copyright © 2007 American Bar Foundation ABSTRACTIn this article, we analyze how pluralistic, competitive, and conflictual interest group amicus curiae participation is in the U.S. Supreme Court. Examining participating organizations and briefs during the 1995 term, we address three inquiries. First, we scrutinize the types of organized interests who participate as amici curiae. We find that the Court is open to a wide array of interests and that particular types of groups do not dominate amicus activity. Second, we analyze the frequency with which amici file briefs on opposing sides of dispute. We reveal few strict patterns of competition, suggesting that Supreme Court cases are salient to a diverse spectrum of interest groups, many of which are not usually thought of as being in competition with one another. Third, we investigate how often and which amici directly cite one another for purposes of invalidating each other's argumentation. While amici have a great deal of opportunity for this form of direct conflict, it is surprisingly rare. Nonetheless, when amici engage in this express form of discord, they play a clear role in shaping the flow of information at the Court. | 
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