Interest Groups

While direct lobbying of the courts and judges violates legal ethics and impugns a court’s or a judge’s impartiality and integrity, interest or pressure groups have been active before the courts since the founding, though their rates of participation certainly increased over the course of time. The excitement and grandeur of test cases such as Brown v. Board of Education (1954) or District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) often capture student imaginations; interest group activity is more commonly accomplished via the amicus curiae, or friend of the court, brief. These briefs offer judges and justices a group’s or set of groups’ views on how the law should be interpreted and provide a bellwether on the salience of a case beyond the immediate parties. Our volume offers two scholarly examinations of this activity. First, Professors Hassett, Lane, and Schoenherr dig deep into the Arlen Specter archives and sift through the briefing books provided by interest groups for the Robert Bork confirmation hearings. Using the personal papers of a prominent member of the Judiciary Committee, these scholars provide an examination of the informational value that organized interests provide concerning nominees to the Court. Second, Professor Laura P. Moyer, along with Megan Balcom and Alyson Benton—an undergraduate and a graduate student scholar, respectively—presents an important examination of how interest groups’ attempts to sway the Supreme Court adjust over time. Examining the amicus curiae briefs filed by antiabortion groups in three major decisions, Moyer and colleagues are able to show how groups tailor their arguments to the justices and the temporal context. The chapter provides a brief history of the legal fight over abortion and also introduces students to the concept of frames. Frames, as shown by this contribution, are a useful and replicable data-gathering technique that students may find helpful as they pursue their own research questions.

“A Matter of Great Importance” by Abigail V. Hassett; Elizabeth A. Lane; and Jessica A. Schoenherr

“Opposition to Abortion, Then and Now” by Laura P. Moyer; Alyson Hendricks-Benton; and Megan Balcom