Congressional Power and State Court Jurisdiction

Committee Jurisdiction, Congressional Behavior and Policy Outcomes

Although jurisdictional turf wars between congressional committees have long been recognized, scholars have largely overlooked the impact of jurisdictional fights on policy proposals and outcomes. This paper develops a theoretical perspective on how legislators balance the benefits of expanded committee jurisdiction against preferred policy outcomes. It shows why: a) senior members, and young m...

Exercising FOREIGN CRIMINAL JURISDICTION over State officials

Our article examines the extent to which state officials are subject to prosecution in foreign domestic courts for international crimes.  We consider the different types of immunity that international law accords to state officials, the reasons for the conferment of this immunity and whether they apply in cases in which it is alleged that the official has committed an international crime. ...

Pulling Punches : Congressional Constraints on the Supreme Court ’ s

To date, no study has found evidence that the U.S. Supreme Court is constrained by Congress in its constitutional decisions. We addressed the selection bias inherent in previous studies with a statute-centered, rather than a case-centered, analysis, following all congressional laws enacted between 1987 and 2000. We uncovered considerable congressional constraint in the Court’s constitutional ru...

Congressional distributive politics and state economic performance

States that were represented by very senior Democratic congressmen grew more quickly during the 1953–1990 period than states that were represented by more junior congressional delegations. States with a large fraction of politically competitive House districts also grew faster than average. The first finding is consistent with traditional legislator-based models of distributive politics, the se...

Court-Martial Jurisdiction over Military-Civilian Hybrids: Retired Regulars, Reservists, and Discharged Prisoners