Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

For over three decades, numerous studies on the impact of the United States Supreme Court have made it obvious that the legal rules and policy preferences of the Court do not automatically determine the decisions of the lower courts. An extensive literature now exists to detail the nature and extent of the impact of the Supreme Court on the courts below. The picture of judicial impact that emerges from this literature is characterized by numerous differences in the way the “impact” of the Supreme Court is conceptualized. The present study explores the differences in interpretation that might result from the application of four separate approaches to the study of judicial impact. Each of these four methods is applied in turn to evaluate the impact of the Supreme Court's decision in Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), on the highest state appellate courts in California, New York, North Carolina, Illinois, and Oklahoma.¹

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

BAUM, L. (1977) “Judicial impact as a form of policy implementation,” in J. A. Gardiner (ed.) Public Law and Public Policy. New York: Praeger.

BAUM, L. (1980) “Responses of federal district judges to court of appeals policies: an exploration.” Western Pol. Q. 33: 217-224.

BEATTY, J. K. (1972) “State court evasion of United States Supreme Court mandates during the last decade of the Warren Court.” Valparaiso Law Rev. 6: 260-285.

CANON, B. C. (1973) “Reactions of state supreme courts to a U.S. Supreme Court civil liberties decision.” Law and Society Rev. 8: 109-134.

CANON, B. C. (1974) “Organizational contumacy in the transmission of judicial policies: the Mapp, Escobedo, Miranda, and Gault cases.” Villanova Law Rev. 20: 50-79.

CANON, B. C. and K. KOLSON (1971) “Compliance with Gault in rural America: the case of Kentucky.” J. of Family Law 10: 300-326.

GRUHL, J. (1980) “The Supreme Court's impact on the law of libel: compliance by lower federal courts.” Western Pol. Q. 33: 502-519.

GRUHL, J. (1981) “State supreme courts and the U.S. Supreme Court's post-Miranda rulings.” J. of Criminal Law and Criminology 72: 886-913.

GRYSKI, G. S. , E. C. MAIN , and W. DIXON (1986) “Models of state high court decision making in sex discrimination cases.” J. of Politics 48: 143-155.

10.

JOHNSON, C. A. and B. C. CANON (1984) Judicial Policies: Implementation and Impact. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Press.

11.

KRAMER, D. C. and R. RIGA (1982) “The New York Court of Appeals and the U.S. Supreme Court, 1969-1976,” in M. C. Porter and G. A. Tarr (eds.) State Supreme Courts: Policymakers in the Federal System. Westwood, CT: Greenwood.

12.

MANWARING, D. R. (1968) “The impact of Mapp v. Ohio,” in D. H. Everson (ed.) The Supreme Court as Policy-Maker: Three Studies on the Impact of Judicial Decisions. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University, Public Affairs Research Bureau.

13.

PELTASON, J. (1961) Fifty-Eight Lonely Men. New York: Harcourt, Brace&World.

14.

ROMANS, N. T. (1974) “The role of state supreme courts in judicial policy making: Escobedo, Miranda and the use of judicial impact analysis.” Western Pol. Q. 27: 38-59.

15.

Shepard's United State Citations (1984) Case Edition. Minneapolis: West.

16.

SONGER, D. R. (1983) “The impact of the Supreme Court on outcomes in the U.S. Courts of Appeals: a comparison of law issue areas.” Presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Assn., Birmingham, AL.

17.

SONGER, D. R. (1986) “Alternative methods of studying judicial impact: Miranda in three state courts.” Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Assn., Washington, DC.

18.

SONGER, D. R. (1987) “The impact of the Supreme Court on trends in economic policy making in the United States Courts of Appeals.” J. of Politics 49: 830-844.

19.

SONGER, D. R. , C. K. ROWLAND , and R. A. CARP (1984) “The impact of the Supreme Court on outcomes in the U.S. district courts and the U.S. Courts of Appeals: a longitudinal exploration.” Presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Assn., Washington, DC.

20.

STIDHAM, R. and R. A. CARP (1982) “Trial courts' response to Supreme Court policy changes: three case studies.” Law and Policy Q. 4: 215-234.

21.

TARR, G. A. (1977) Judicial Impact and State Supreme Courts. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

22.

WASBY, S. L. (1970) The Impact of the United States Supreme Court: Some Perspectives. Homewood, IL: Dorsey.

ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF JUDICIAL IMPACT

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References