Since 1940, more than half of all states have switched at least in part from popular election or elite appointment to experiment with merit selection in choosing some or all of their state supreme court justices. Under merit selection, a commission—often comprising some combination of judges, attorneys, and the general public—is tasked with considering applications from candidates vying to fill a judicial vacancy. Ostensibly, the commission forwards the best candidates to the governor, who ultimately appoints them. Presently, numerous states are debating whether to adopt or abolish merit selection.  In his short, sharp book, Choosing State Supreme Court Justices, Greg Goelzhauser utilizes new data on more than 1,500 state supreme court justices seated from 1960 through 2014 to answer the question, Does merit selection produce better types of judges? He traces the rise of merit selection and explores whether certain judicial selection institutions favor candidates who have better qualifications, are more diverse, and have different types of professional experience.Goelzhauser’s results ultimately contribute to the broader debate concerning comparative institutional performance with respect to state judicial selection.

Product Description: State supreme courts use state constitutional provisions to afford their citizens state constitutional rights beyond the protections that the U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the U.S. Constitution to require. As state supreme courts consider expanding state constitutional rights they engage in an ongoing dialogue with their sister state supreme courts...read more

Product Description: Applying strategic approaches to both interest groups as amici curiae and state supreme court justices, Comparato investigates the influence of judicial retention methods and the ballot initiative on their behaivor. The results demonstrate that they behave strategically, attempting to achieve their goals within the confines of the institutional setting...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Despite education being one of the most important, if not the most important, political issues for the American public, access to funding for education is not equal across school districts. Local public schools are generally funded by a combination of state aid and local property taxes, a combination which favors wealthier suburbs and disadvantages relatively poor urban and rural areas...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Introduces state supreme courts, including how their justices are selected, how they operate, and how cases are decided.

Product Description: Lopeman examines the impact advocacy of intentional judicial activism by a justice of a state supreme court can have on establishing the court as a policy maker. He examines the attitudinal model and the judicial role model of decision making and concludes that, while the attitudinal model might describe the decision-making process in the U...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: This unique empirical study investigates how the method of judicial selection significantly affects state-supreme-court policies in several important areas of law―business, criminal procedure, and family law. After examining different theories and surveying the research about judicial selection, this comparative study of policies in six states―Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, West Virginia―challenges current assumptions...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: The new Judicial Federalism is a significant development in American law: more cases are being decided by state constitutions than ever before in history. In this book, Barry Latzer provides the most thorough treatment available of the criminal law aspects of the New Federalism...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

This is the first systematic and comprehensive analysis of state supreme courts. Offering detailed case studies of the Alabama, Ohio, and New Jersey supreme courts, G. Alan Tarr and Mary Cornelia Aldis Porter then use this information to assess the state courts' relations with federal courts, their relations with state courts in other states, and their relations with other institutions of state government.

Product Description: In The Role of State Supreme Courts in the New Judicial Federalism, Susan P. Fino presents a comprehensive analysis of the work of the state supreme court in the context of the new emphasis of states' rights. She provides both quantitative and qualitative data on state supreme court decisions, and includes an analysis of over 1,200 opinions rendered by six selected courts, thus laying the foundation for a systematic study of the state supreme court system...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)