Of time and judicial behavior: Time series analyses of United States Supreme Court agenda-setting and decision-making, 1888-1989

This study examines the agenda setting and decision-making behavior of the United States Supreme Court from 1888 to 1989. Using Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research data and data that the author assisted in gathering, the study investigates the changing composition of the Court's agenda and the level of its unanimity. The study also examines the level of the liberalism of its decisions. The study specifies time series models and structural equations models to test the strength of the association between the justices' personal attributes and liberalism.;The study finds that economics decisions dominated the Court's docket up until the 1950s, when civil liberties-civil rights cases became more prominent. Judicial power decisions remained relatively constant. The unanimity of its decisions also declined across the period analyzed, first observed during the White Court. The liberalism of the Court's economics decisions was unexpectedly high for the Fuller and White Courts, but as expected for the Taft, Hughes and Stone Courts. The Court's civil liberties-civil rights jurisprudence was conservative through the 1940's, but became more liberal during the Warren Court. Judicial power liberalism was quite volatile.;Time series analysis demonstrates that the justices' religious affiliations, and agricultural origins were positively associated with the Court's economic liberalism, while judicial experience was negatively associated with the Court's economic policy preferences. The Great Depression and Roosevelt's Court-packing plan served to increase the liberalism of the Court's economics rulings. Partisan affiliation was shown to be related to the Court's civil liberties-civil rights liberalism. The occurrence of World War I is modestly related to a decline in liberalism. Judicial power liberalism is related to party identification, religious affiliation and career service, as well as the Judiciary Act of 1925.