Scholars have long recognized that interest groups realize the importance of the courts as policymakers and as vehicles of social and political change. We examined the amicus curiae participation of the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans for Effective Law Enforcement in criminal cases before the Burger Court from 1969–1982. We found that AELE, a conservative law‐enforcement organization, has been the most successful interest group as participant as amid. Moreover, we found that criminal law is yet another area of law in which interest groups are using the Supreme Court to achieve and protect their policy interests.
This initial volume in the SAGE Series on Green Society provides an overview of the social and environmental dimensions of our energy system and the key organizations, policy tools, and technologies that can help shape a greenenergy economy. Each entry draws on scholarship from numerous social sciences, natural and physical sciences, and engineering.
The Future of Our Discipline: The Statue of Doctoral Students in Political Science just as we can illuminate that work in turn. Get out your crosscut saws and saw away! Notes T h e author wishes to acknowledge the helpful comments and support of Scott Barclay, Stephen Frantzich, and Michael Malbin. 1. Cigler (1997) has noted a similar phenomenon in the study of interest groups: Most interest group scholars tend to come from either a tradition of seeing political parties and interest groups as mediating entities or from voting behavior research (leading to an interest in PACs). They thus pay relatively little attention to interest groups in courts, and leave such activities out of the larger picture. Public law scholars, on the other hand, conduct most research on interest groups in court, but without adequate use of the broader interest group literature. 2. An example: Does it matter that U.S. district judges can seek elevation to the U.S. Court of Appeals without leaving the district court, while members of the U.S. House of Representatives must give up their office to seek a Senate seat? 3. See Romzek and Utter (1996) for another study highly useful in prompting thoughts of the differences between legislative and judicial staff. 4. While those conducting social science research on the law have access to several such journals, particularly Law and Society Review and Law and Social Inquiry, comparable journals may not be as readily available in other subfields.
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