Abstract
Past research has demonstrated lasting effects of important Supreme Court decisions on issue attention in the national media. In this light, the Court has served as an important agenda setter. We significantly expand on these findings by arguing that these salient Court decisions can raise the perceived importance of political issues and induce heightened, short-term policy attention in the broader political system. Using measures of media attention, congressional policy actions, and presidential policy actions, we utilize dynamic vector autoregressive modelling to examine the Court’s impact on issue attention in the macro policy system regarding tobacco and drug policy. Overall, this study suggests that the Supreme Court’s most important decisions might significantly affect broader issue attention in the American political system.
Highlights
Past research has demonstrated lasting effects of important Supreme Court decisions on issue attention in the national media
We argue that the US Supreme Court is an important agenda setter in the politics of two issues related to personal vices, tobacco and illegal drugs
All eight of the presidential and parliamentary democracies named here have a free press, so it stands to reason that the news media in each of these countries could react to constitutional court rulings as well, generating the interactions between elected officials and the press that we report for the American case
Summary
Past research has demonstrated lasting effects of important Supreme Court decisions on issue attention in the national media. Because of this close structural similarity, these two countries would be natural cases for further investigation of this kind of interbranch policy attention. A punctuation in policymaking can occur when attention to the issue is at a heightened state To this end, whenever the Supreme Court rules on a vice-related issue, it abruptly can change the degree to which government regulations affect individual discretion and thereby affect many Americans instantly. Whenever the Supreme Court rules on a vice-related issue, it abruptly can change the degree to which government regulations affect individual discretion and thereby affect many Americans instantly This can prompt the elected policymakers, Congress and the president, to react for a couple of reasons. Congress and the president may be compelled to fill a policy
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
