Federalism and Judicial Independence: Supreme Court Review of State Statutes, 1987-2000

Abstract

To analyze Supreme Court invalidation of state statutes, I incorporate the innovations that Anna Harvey and Barry Friedman developed in their groundbreaking work on the Court’s judicial review of federal statutes. I use their techniques to correct for selection bias and to accurately compare ideological preferences across institutions. Unlike the findings by Harvey and Friedman concerning judicial review of federal statutes, I do not find evidence supporting the constraint model in invalidations of state legislation. The analysis indicates that the Supreme Court employs a different calculus when it reviews the constitutionality of legislation passed in the states as opposed to that enacted by Congress.

Keywords: Supreme Court, State Statutes, Federalism, Judicial Independence, Judicial Review, Congress, Separation Of Powers, Judicial Politics, State Politics