Environmental and Structural Variables as Determinants of Issues in State Courts of Last Resort

Does the U.S. Constitution Need an Equal Rights Amendment?

“…Our expectation about the government's involvement is simple enough: when, as a party or an amicus curiae, it defends a sex-based classification, we expect the likelihood of defeat for the litigant alleging a violation of his or her rights to increase. This hypothesis reflects a voluminous literature in both the federal and state judicial contexts demonstrating that courts defer to the government-especially in criminal cases (see, for example, Atkins and Glick 1976;Emmert 1992;Glick and Vines 1973;Gryski, Main, and Dixon 1986;Traut and Emmert 1998;Wheeler et al 1987;Yale Law Journal 1978). For our purposes, we simply incorporate a variable indicating government involvement (coded as one) or not (coded as zero), but we also, in a supplementary analysis, control for the type of suit (criminal or civil).…”

“…Scholars include this variable in almost all models of state court decisions out of the belief that appellate tribunals "siphon off routine cases" (Gryski, Main, and Dixon 1986, p. 145), leaving the more serious matters for courts of last resort to resolve. In the context of our study, the presence of these courts thus should increase the likelihood of the court applying a higher standard of review, as well as finding in favor of the party alleging discrimination, "since frivolous appeals will be screened by the intermediate appellate courts, and the high courts will be evaluating only the more serious claims of sex discrimination" (Gryski, Main, and Dixon 1986, p. 145; see also Atkins and Glick 1976;Canon and Jaros 1970).…”

The Prestige of Australian State Supreme Courts Over the 20th Century

“…The existence of an intermediate trial court assists to sift out a high proportion of 'run of the mill' cases that are less likely to lend themselves to innovation and creates more time for appellate judges to invest in crafting their judgments (Atkins and Glick 1976). As the nature of the cases change, judges become more fractious and opinionated and courts show a greater preparedness to extend the frontiers of policy making (Atkins and Glick 1976;Caldeira 1985).…”

Do Institutions Really Matter? Assessing the Impact of State Judicial Structures on Citizen Litigiousness

“…In short, strangers are more likely to go to court with one another than are those with ongoing social interaction and close-knit community bonds. As a consequence, legal systems in socially complex states provide the cheapest avenue of access to formal political processes (Glick 2004;Yates, et al 2001;Atkins & Glick 1976). The more complex a society, the greater the need for the formal dispute resolution process of the courts.…”