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Criticism from Below

The Supreme Court’s Decision to Revisit Cases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Christopher P. McMillion  and
Kevin Vance
Christopher P. McMillion*
Affiliation:
Oklahoma Baptist University
Kevin Vance
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
*
Contact the corresponding author at christopher.mcmillion@okbu.edu.
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Abstract

The Supreme Court sometimes chooses to use its limited time to revisit earlier decisions. In doing so, the justices signal the importance of reasserting, correcting, or reconsidering their arguments. We find that the likelihood of the Supreme Court revisiting a case in a given year increases significantly as the number of circuit courts critical of that opinion increases. These results suggest that an acknowledgment of the important role of the circuit courts influences the decision to revisit cases. Even if the Court merely clarifies or reinforces earlier opinions, criticism in the circuits prompts the Court to take some action. Though the Supreme Court’s word is final, barring a constitutional amendment or legislative override in nonconstitutional cases, the mechanism of criticism in the circuits allows reconsideration of many issues already decided by the Court and sheds light on the importance of institutional structures to the maintenance of the rule of law.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , Spring 2017 , pp. 81 - 103
Copyright
© 2017 by the Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.

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Footnotes

Previous versions of this article were presented at the 2014 University of Texas at Austin Conference in Public Law and at the 2015 meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. We thank Matthew E. K. Hall, H. W. Perry Jr., the editor, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and helpful suggestions.

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