“Tilted Scales:” The Impact of the U.S. Supreme Court on American Income Inequality

Abstract

The slow but steady growth in income disparity has been subject to studies by economists and sociologists since the 1970s. Only recently have political scientists taken up the puzzle. Studies of the impact of presidential and congressional politics on income inequality have shown that politics matter; yet scholars have been silent on the judiciary. If policies matter and courts make policy, their influence on inequality deserves attention. Our article theorizes about two causal mechanisms via which patterns of court-related behavior may affect the distribution of income in the United States. Using a time series analysis on the U.S. Supreme Court over the last fifty years, we show that patterns of court outcomes can affect income distribution.