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While Legal Scholars, Psychologists, And Political Scientists Commonly Voice Their Skepticism Over The Influence Oral Arguments Have On The Court's Voting Pattern, This Book Offers A Contrarian Position Focused On Close Scrutiny Of The Justices' Communication Within Oral Arguments. Malphurs Examines The Rhetoric, Discourse, And Subsequent Decision-making Within The Oral Arguments For Significant Supreme Court Cases, Visiting Their Potential Power And Danger And Revealing The Rich Dynamic Nature Of The Justices' Interactions Among Themselves And The Advocates. In Addition To Offering Advancement In Scholars' Understanding Of Oral Arguments, This Study Introduces Sensemaking As An Alternative To Rational Decision-making In Supreme Court Arguments, Suggesting A New Model Of Judicial Decision-making To Account For The Communication Within Oral Arguments That Underscores A Glaring Irony Surrounding The Bulk Of Related Research - The Willingness Of Scholars To Criticize Oral Arguments But Their Unwillingness To Study This Communication. With The Growing Accessibility Of The Court's Oral Arguments And The Inevitable Introduction Of Television Cameras In The Courtroom, This Book Offers New Theoretical And Methodological Perspectives At A Time When Scholars Across The Fields Of Communication, Law, Psychology, And Political Science Will Direct Even Greater Attention And Scrutiny Toward The Supreme Court--p. [i]. A Letter To The Chief Justice Of The United States -- Historical Development Of Legal Rhetoric And Supreme Court Oral Arguments -- Do Oral Arguments Before The Supreme Court Matter? A Simple Explanation -- New Question: Oral Arguments Matter, But How Do We Make Sense Of Them? A Modest Proposal -- Critical Theories And Research Questions: Proposing A Method To Capture The Madness Of Oral Arguments -- The Many Faces Of Oral Argument: Oral Argument's Purposes And The Justices' Styles -- Arguing About Bong Hits 4 Jesus: Testing Theory And Method In Morse V. Frederick -- M
Does the communication occurring during Supreme Court oral arguments exert a measurable influence on judicial decision-making? Ryan A. Malphurs, drawing on his expertise in communication studies, challenges the prevailing skepticism among legal scholars and political scientists regarding the impact of oral arguments. He argues that by applying a sensemaking framework, researchers can better understand how justices interact with advocates and each other to shape final outcomes, moving beyond traditional rational-choice models.
What You Will Find
Experts in legal communication and political science identify this work as a significant contribution to the study of judicial behavior. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which serves as a foundational text for those interested in the intersection of rhetoric and constitutional law.
Page Count:
0
Publication Date:
2013-01-01
Publisher:
Taylor & Francis Group
ISBN-10:
0415640040
ISBN-13:
9780203082942
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