The Effect of Opinion Readability on the Impact of U.S. Supreme Court Precedents in State High Courts. (24th November 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Fix, Michael P.; Fairbanks, Bailey R.
• Is Part Of: Social science quarterly. Volume 101:Number 2(2020)
• Page Start: 811
• Page End: 824
• Publication Date: 2019-11-24
• Subjects: Political science -- Periodicals; Social sciences -- Periodicals; 300
• DOI: 10.1111/ssqu.12752
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0038-4941

Abstract

Abstract : Objective: This article examines whether more readable U.S. Supreme Court opinions are cited with greater frequency in state courts of last resort. Methods: We use random slope, random intercept multilevel models to analyze 30 years of state high court citations to U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions issued during the 1987–2006 terms. Results: Our analysis reveals that opinion readability exerts a strong substantive impact on citation rates. This effect holds while accounting for a variety of factors previously shown to influence citation rates. Conclusion: Institutional constraints, workload considerations, and audience costs should lead state high courts to find clearly written opinions more attractive than jargon‐laden ones. This makes the readability of a U.S. Supreme Court precedent a useful heuristic for state courts when selecting among potential relevant precedents. As these courts play a major role in implementing U.S Supreme Court decisions, our findings indicate that the readability of U.S. Supreme Court opinions has a strong effect on their long‐term impact.