Politics from the Bench? Ideology and Strategic Voting in the U.S. Supreme Court

In the United States, Supreme Court justices often vote along ideological lines. Why this is case remains incompletely understood. To learn more about justices’ preferences and nature of decision-making in Court, we differentiate between votes that were pivotal those not. We find situations which a justice pivotal, her ideology even predictive than usual, especially when choice matters for unambiguously establishing legal precedent. interpret previously unknown pattern data, develop model voting have both expressive instrumental preferences. That is, strategically trade off litigant should prevail based on merits with their desire to shape