Judicial Demand—Screening and Decisions on the Merits: A Second Look

In: American politics quarterly, Volume 7, Issue 1, p. 109-119

Abstract

The relationship between policy makers' demand-screening decisions and their responses to demands that have been given full consideration can be examined in courts which possess discretionary jurisdiction. Some empirical evidence on these courts suggests that their case-screening decisions and decisions on the merits are closely linked, based on the same criteria-the merits of lower-court decisions—applied in the same way. This conception is tested for the California Supreme Court for 1970-1974 through an examina tion of the relationship between votes to accept cases and votes to reverse lower-court decisions in the same cases. Only a weak relationship is found. The weakness of this relationship is explained by the role of "non-merits" criteria for screening decisions and by the fluidity of justices' assessments of the merits.