Decision Making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals

Frank B. Cross is Professor at the University of Texas Law School and Herbert D. Kelleher Centennial Professor of Business Law at the University of Texas McCombs School of Business.

"Decision Making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals is a fascinating, indeed seminal, piece of work full of often surprising insights. Any serious political scientist and interdisciplinary legal academic will have to read this book and confront its careful, meticulously designed arguments and evidence." - Sanford Levinson (University of Texas) "Cross's new book is a law professor's effort to explore the competing explanations for judicial decisions... The book will certainly not resolve the debate over the attitudinal model, but it will be impossible for specialists to ignore it as they continue to work toward a comprehensive understanding of judicial decision making." - CHOICE "Cross provides useful and novel integration of legal, political science, and economic research to understand circuit court decision making. His new avenues for empirical analysis... advance his goal of initiating future theoretical and empirical research by legal and social science scholars. Many of his findings will have great utility for those seeking determinants of circuit court and other collegial decision making." - Law & Politics Book Review "This is one of the most important empirical studies ever of the federal judiciary. Many of Cross's findings are striking and fresh, and he is able to show that the simple 'realist' story underrates the role of legal constraints—and that ideology matters too." - Cass Sunstein (University of Chicago)

• Contents Illustrations 00 Prologue 00 1. Political Ideology and Circuit Court Decision Making 00 2. The Law and Circuit Court Decision Making 00 3. Judicial Background and Circuit Court Decision Making 00 4. Other Institutions and Circuit Court Decision Making 00 5. Litigants and Circuit Court Decision Making 00 6. Panel Effects and Circuit Court Decision Making 00 7. Procedural Threshold Effects and Circuit Court Decision Making 00 8. Circuit Court Decision Making and Precedential Impact 00 Epilogue 00 Notes 00 Index 00