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Citation To Legislative History: Empirical Evidence On Positive Political And Contextual Theories Of Judicial Decision Making, Michael B. Abramowicz, Emerson H. Tiller
Citation To Legislative History: Empirical Evidence On Positive Political And Contextual Theories Of Judicial Decision Making, Michael B. Abramowicz, Emerson H. Tiller
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
We present empirical evidence suggesting that political context—judicial hierarchy and judicial panel dynamics—influences an authoring judge’s use of legislative history. Specifically, we find that to the extent that political ideology matters, a district court judge’s choice of legislative history is influenced, albeit mostly, by (1) the political makeup of the overseeing circuit court and (2) the political characteristics of a judge’s panel colleagues, as well as by the circuit court as a whole. These factors matter more than the authoring judge’s own political-ideological connection to the legislators. Put differently, an authoring judge will have a greater tendency to cite legislative …
Judicial Interpretation In The Cost-Benefit Crucible, Jonathan R. Siegel
Judicial Interpretation In The Cost-Benefit Crucible, Jonathan R. Siegel
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
This article responds to Professor Adrian Vermeule's new book, Judging Under Uncertainty. Professor Vermeule argues that (1) no one can empirically determine whether judicial use of legislative history or other interpretive methods that go beyond simple enforcement of plain text has any positive net benefits, but (2) we do know that such interpretive methods impose costs, and therefore (3) courts should discard such interpretive methods. This article suggests that (1) it is far from clear how costly these interpretive methods are, (2) it is also not clear that discarding them would result in any cost savings, both because of costs …