Into the Words: Using Statutory Text to Explore the Impact of Federal Courts on State Policy Diffusion

Abstract

I examine the impact federal courts have on state policy diffusion through the use of computational text analysis. Using a dyadic framework, I model the impact courts have on the decision to adopt a policy and, if adopted, how much text to borrow directly from another state’s preexisting law. A court decision ruling a statute unconstitutional can generate up to a 47% relative reduction in the probability of adoption, and a ruling of constitutionality can generate a relative increase as high as 519% in the amount of borrowed text. These findings shed light on how states learn from one another. ∗Funded by the National Science Foundation (Law and Social Science, SES-1155066). †I would like to thank the many people who have given me helpful comments and provided invaluable insights including Brandon Bartels, Bill Berry, Fran Berry, Amanda Driscoll, Jeff Gill, Morgan Hazelton, Pauline Kim, Bill Lowry, Andrew Martin, Jacob Montgomery, Ryan Moore, Michael Nelson, Jim Spriggs, Peter Wiedenbeck and the participants of the 2013 Visions in Methodology conference. Any remaining errors are my sole responsibility. I would also like to thank my RA, John Moynihan, for his fantastic work on the data collection for this project.