US Supreme Court Opinions and their Audiences

This book is the first study specifically to investigate the extent to which US Supreme Court justices alter the clarity of their opinions based on expected reactions from their audiences. The authors examine this dynamic by creating a unique measure of opinion clarity and then testing whether the Court writes clearer opinions when it faces ideologically hostile and ideologically scattered lower federal courts; when it decides cases involving poorly performing federal agencies; when it decides cases involving states with less professionalized legislatures and governors; and when it rules against public opinion. The data shows the Court writes clearer opinions in every one of these contexts, and demonstrates that actors are more likely to comply with clearer Court opinions.

1. Introduction; 2. A theory: using opinion clarity to enhance compliance and manage public support; 3. Estimating the clarity of Supreme Court opinions; 4. Supreme Court opinions and Federal Circuit Courts; 5. Supreme Court opinions and Federal Agency implementors; 6. Supreme Court opinions and the States; 7. Supreme Court opinions and the secondary population; 8. Establishing compliance as a function of clarity; 9. Conclusion.

Ryan C. Black is Associate Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University.
Ryan J. Owens is Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Justin Wedeking is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Kentucky.
Patrick C. Wohlfarth is Assistant Professor of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park.