The Judicial Tug of War: How Lawyers, Politicians, and Ideological Incentives Shape the American Judiciary (Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions)

"Why have conservatives decried 'activist judges'? And why have liberals - and America's powerful legal establishment - emphasized qualifications and experience over ideology? This transformative text tackles these questions with a new framework for thinking about the nation's courts, 'the judicial tug of war', which not only explains current political clashes over America's courts, but also powerfully predicts the composition of courts moving forward. As the text demonstrates through novel quantitative analyses, a greater ideological rift between politicians and legal elites leads politicians to adopt measures that put ideology and politics front and center - for example, judicial elections. On the other hand, ideological closeness between politicians and the legal establishment leads legal elites to have significant influence on the selection of judges. Ultimately, the judicial tug of war makes one point clear: for good or bad, politics are critical to how judges are selected and whose interests they ultimately represent." -- Descripción del editor "Why have conservatives decried 'activist judges'? And why have liberals - and America's powerful legal establishment - emphasized qualifications and experience over ideology? This transformative text tackles these questions with a new framework for thinking about the nation's courts, 'the judicial tug of war', which not only explains current political clashes over America's courts, but also powerfully predicts the composition of courts moving forward. As the text demonstrates through novel quantitative analyses, a greater ideological rift between politicians and legal elites leads politicians to adopt measures that put ideology and politics front and center - for example, judicial elections. On the other hand, ideological closeness between politicians and the legal establishment leads legal elites to have significant influence on the selection of judges. Ultimately, the judicial tug of war makes one point clear: for good or bad, politics are critical to how judges are selected and whose interests they ultimately represent." -- Descripción del editor 01.0_pp_i_iv_Frontmatter 02.0_pp_v_vi_Dedication 03.0_pp_vii_x_Contents 04.0_pp_xi_xii_List_of_Figures 05.0_pp_xiii_xiv_List_of_Tables 06.0_pp_xv_xvi_Acknowledgments 07.0_pp_1_28_Introduction_The_Tug_of_War_Over_the_American_Judiciary 08.0_pp_29_30_The_Legal_Profession_and_the_Captured_Judiciary 08.1_pp_31_70_The_American_Aristocracy 08.2_pp_71_102_The_Bar_Self-Regulation_and_Judicial_Capture 09.0_pp_103_104_Political_Actors_and_the_Incentive_to_Politicize 09.1_pp_105_140_Politicians_Their_Interests_and_the_Judicial_Tug-of-War 09.2_pp_141_172_Political_Incentives_and_Politicization_in_the_Federal_Courts 09.3_pp_173_212_Politicization_in_the_States_and_Across_Judicial_Selection_Mechanisms 10.0_pp_213_214_Ramifications_of_the_Judicial_Tug-of-War 10.1_pp_215_249_The_Politics_of_Judicial_Reform 10.2_pp_250_273_The_Tug_of_War_Polarization_and_Judicial_Conflict 10.3_pp_274_291_Conclusion_American_Courts_in_Times_of_Increasing_Polarization 11.0_pp_292_310_Bibliography 12.0_pp_311_314_Index 13.0_pp_315_318_Other_Books_in_the_Series "On February 13, 2016, Justice Antonin Scalia, the conservative intellectual anchor on the US Supreme Court, died unexpectedly while on a hunting trip in Texas. Attention immediately turned to President Barack Obama and how he would respond to a vacancy on the nation's highest court. Although Scalia was not a pivotal member of the Court by any means, his absence left behind a 4-4 balance in terms of justices appointed by Democratic presidents and those appointed by Republican ones. Obama's appointment of a liberal-leaning successor would immediately shift the balance of power on the Court toward a 5-4 liberal majority, possibly for decades"-- Provided by publisher Develops a novel theory about how and why politicians and legal elites politicise courts, situating this within the context of the wider American political landscape. Analysing the ideological composition of the nation's courts, this text demonstrates to policy makers and lay political observers the processes and consequences of judicial reforms.