Agenda Setting on the Burger Court Paper 15

<p>Prior papers in this series focused specifically on the Court’s decision to grant review. Although some of those factors were related to the substantive issues presented in the cases, this paper takes a closer look at case types and issue areas in the cases filed.</p> <p>Drawing from an ongoing database project this paper examines the case types and substantive issue areas of all cases during the Burger Court (1969 to 1985 Terms) on its appellate docket. Examination of case types and issue distribution of the Burger Court’s appellate docket provides background and context for prior examinations of the factors related to agenda setting on the Burger Court as well as for examinations of the Vinson and Warren Court agendas.</p> <p>The examination here is descriptive, meaning no statistical tests are performed. The results show a consistency in the types of cases filed even as the number of cases on the Court’s docket grew. There was also a consistency in the types of issues presented to the Court. On the other hand, the Court took higher percentages of some types of cases for review than others, possibly due to its ideological preferences.</p>