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Supreme Facts

The Prevalence and Justification of Social Facts in Landmark Decisions of the Supreme Court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Morgan Marietta  and
Tyler Farley
Morgan Marietta*
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts Lowell
Tyler Farley
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts Lowell
*
Contact the corresponding author, Morgan Marietta, at [email protected].
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Abstract

One of the central roles of the Supreme Court is to settle controversies over social facts, but little is known about the prevalence of these rulings or the justifications for them offered by the Court. An analysis of the landmark decisions from 1900 to 2015 reveals that most include a ruling on a disputed social fact, though the Court rarely offers an explicit justification. Rulings from different ideological perspectives invoke social facts at the same rate but with distinct patterns of justification, illustrating a division in approach to this vital aspect of the Court’s work.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , Fall 2016 , pp. 243 - 265
Copyright
© 2016 by the Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.

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Footnotes

The authors would like to thank David Barker, Les Benedict, Sam DeCanio, Howard Gillman, Ronald Kahn, John Maltese, Jordan Marietta, and Bert Rockman for valuable comments on earlier drafts and the Honors College of the University of Massachusetts Lowell for its generous fellowship support.

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