Anticipatory Compliance with Supreme Court Rulings

Abstract

When lower court judges sense a shift in Supreme Court policy, they can either adopt the policy they expect the Court to adopt, or they can wait until the Court makes it explicit before adopting it. This study focuses on lower federal court judges' decisions to anticipate, or to refuse to anticipate, new Court policy in the area of libel. As such, this study addresses an aspect of lower court judges' behavior which has been neglected in research on the impact of judicial decisions. This study finds that lower court judges overwhelmingly acted to anticipate new Court policy which had not yet been handed down, and it suggests reasons why they did.