Centennial Honors College
Western Illinois University
Undergraduate Research Day 2014
Podium Presentation
Does Justice Ideology Effect Supreme Court Decision Making?
Michael Quigley
Faculty Mentor: Kimberly Rice
Political Science
I will be exploring what factors outside of the law affect the Supreme Court Justices’
decisions. I will be primarily explaining the attitudinal model of decision making and
explaining the research in support and opposition of this model. The attitudinal model
states that when a justice decides his or her vote on a case, he or she is motivated by
sincere policy preferences and will vote according to these preferences. While there is
plenty of research supporting the attitudinal model, there is also research that focuses
on when the attitudinal model does not explain Supreme Court decisions. I will be
explaining some of the exemptions to the attitudinal model and why often, but not
always, Supreme Court justices vote to achieve their sincere policy preferences. Some
of the exemptions to the attitudinal model include unanimous reversals If all nine
members of the court agree to overturn a case, would that mean that all nine justices
were more politically conservative or liberal than the prior court, or do justices
sometimes also follow precedent? Does public opinion sway the decision making of
justices on the Supreme Court, thereby making the Attitudinal model less sound? Does
the institutional structure of the Supreme Court give justices more freedom to seek their
sincere policy preferences? Finally, does the case salience (or importance) affect
whether Supreme Court justices seek their sincere policy preferences? This research is
important because if justices are not making decisions based on the law, but instead
upon their policy preferences, our court may not be operating as it was originally
intended.