Judicial Agenda Setting Through Signaling and Strategic Litigant Responses

Abstract

We show that when justices hand down decisions that provide signals – indications of their priorities and preferences – policy entrepreneurs bring well crafted cases in those policy areas, resulting in a transformation of the Supreme Court’s agenda. The implications are twofold: 1) Supreme Court justices can summon cases onto their agenda, well before the certiorari process begins, by informally communicating their priorities and preferences to potential litigants, and 2) Supreme Court justices are dependent on extrajudicial actors for access to a sufficient number of well framed cases to make comprehensive policy in areas that they consider priorities.

Keywords: Supreme Court, Signalling, Agenda Setting, Litigants, Certiorari

JEL Classification: K1, K10, K40