Stripped: Congress and Jurisdiction Stripping

Abstract

Conventional wisdom suggests that jurisdiction stripping is positively correlated with the differences between judicial and congressional political preferences. An alternate school of thought suggests that administrative concerns are more directly related to jurisdiction stripping than ideological concerns. This study analyzes the accuracy of these competing explanations with the benefit of a database of all district court filings naming the United States as a defendant and all administrative appeals between the years 1943 and 2004. Analyses were performed to test for relations between jurisdiction stripping and case filings, political ideology, and economic strength. Findings from this study suggest that Congress’s decision to remove jurisdiction is related to administrative concerns, but not political ideology or economic power.

Keywords: Courts, Congress, Jurisdiction