Widely praised in its first edition fourteen years ago and now thoroughly updated in a new edition, Judicial Policies assesses the implementation, impact, and consequences of judicial rulings. It systematically explores the effects of judicial decisions on the people who carry them out, and the individuals and organizations who feel their impact. This second edition discusses and responds to the significant research that has been published since the first edition appeared.

Arguing that judicial policies in the United States are substantially influenced by how the courts and other political actors respond, authors Canon and Johnson employ a heuristic model of different populations and their responses to judicial decisions as a means of: explaining the implementation of judicial policies as a political process, examining the events that usually follow judicial decisions, and organizing the literature in the field. The concluding chapter addresses the important question of whether the judiciary actually makes a difference in the American political system. Canon and Johnson delineate examples where the courts have clearly had an impact and those where they have had little influence.

Preface

Chapter 1. Responses to Judicial Policies
Studying Responses to Judicial Policies
Roe v. Wade: A Case Study of Judicial Impact
A Model of the Implementation and Impact of Judicial
Policies
Summary

Chapter 2. The Interpreting Population
Why and When Judicial Policies Must Be Interpreted
Discretion and Constraints in Interpreting Judicial
Decisions
Interpretive Responses by Judges
The New Judicial Federalism
Factors Affecting Lower Court Interpretations
Summary

Chapter 3. The Implementing Population
The Judiciary and the Implementing Population
Implementing Groups as Organizations
Program Adjustments after Judicial Decisions
Summary

Chapter 4. The Consumer Population
Characteristics of Consumers and Consumption
Responses to Beneficial Decisions
Responses to Adverse Decisions
Summary

Chapter 5. The Secondary Population
Public Officials and Judicial Policies
Interest Groups and Judicial Policies
Media Coverage of Judicial Policies
Attentive and Mass Publics
Summary

Chapter 6. Judicial Impact Theory
Psychological Theories of Judicial Impact
Utility Theory: A Psychological/Economic Approach
Communications Theory
Organizational Theories
Environmental Theories
Summary

Chapter 7. The Impact of Judicial Decisions as Public Policy
Supreme Court Clashes with Other Branches
Other Courts as Policy Makers
Judicial Mobilization of Political Action
The Courts and Social Change
Summary

Appendix

Index of Cases

Index

Bradley C. Canon is Professor of Political Science at the University of Kentucky. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin. He has published widely in the field of judicial impact, including works on judicial activism and restraint and on state supreme courts.

Charles A. Johnson is Professor of Political Science and head of the Department of Political Science at Texas A&M University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky. He has published books and articles and presented papers about various aspects of the judicial process, including judicial behavior.