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Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory Advance Access originally published online on January 11, 2007
Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 2007 17(4):607-624; doi:10.1093/jopart/mul022
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Supreme Court Auditing of the US Courts of Appeals: An Organizational Perspective

Stefanie A. Lindquist

Vanderbilt University

Susan B. Haire

University of Georgia

Donald R. Songer

University of South Carolina

Address correspondence to the author at stefanie.lindquist{at}vanderbilt.edu.

Using an aggregate-level model of Supreme Court–circuit court interactions, this study assesses the extent to which the Court's auditing process of circuit court outputs is shaped by organizational dynamics such as structural capacity, institutionalization, and demographic characteristics. Principals in organizational hierarchies must audit the behavior of their agents to ensure that the agents are faithfully complying with the principals' preferences. In the case of the Supreme Court, such auditing activities must take place in the face of very limited institutional capacity on the Court's part. We propose that the Court considers certain broad organizational and institutional characteristics at the circuit level when performing this task. In particular, we find that the Court strategically allocates its limited institutional resources to audit decisions to respond to its recent interactions with individual circuits in past terms, the circuits' internal decision-making dynamics (including dissent and reversal rates), and goal conflict between the circuit and the Supreme Court.


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