Presidential Bureaucratic Power and Supreme Court Justice Voting

Abstract

Presidency scholars suggest that the federal bureaucracy has become presidentialized and that the federal agencies have become a primary tool for presidential policy implementation. However, in its review of federal agency litigation, the Supreme Court stands as an important monitor of executive bureaucratic action. Here, the conditions under which Supreme Court justices choose to facilitate executive bureaucratic action are assessed. This study evaluates whether Supreme Court justices' voting decisions to support the president's bureaucratic agents are conditioned upon theoretically interesting extra-legal factors. I find that justices' voting decisions on presidential bureaucratic power are influenced by attitudinal, political, and external concerns. I employ the results of this study to suggest potential strategies for the executive in dealing with agency litigation before the Supreme Court.

Keywords: supreme court, law, legal, bureaucratic, agency, federal, justices, policy, economic