Abstract
Case salience affects nearly every aspect of Supreme Court justices' behavior, yet a valid actor-based measure of salience has remained elusive. Researchers have instead relied on external proxy indicators, such as amicus curiae participation and media coverage, to explain justices' behavior. We propose a novel measurement of salience in which we use justices' differential levels of engagement to generate actor-based measures of case and justice-level salience. Focusing on justices' behavior during oral argument, we contend that the more engaged the justices are in a case-defined by the number of words they speak-the more salient the case.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 804-818 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Political Research Quarterly |
Volume | 66 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2013 |
Keywords
- U.S. Supreme Court
- case salience
- judicial politics
- oral arguments