Judicial decisionmaking
In a series of articles and the book,A Mere Machine:The Supreme Court,Congress,and American Democracy,Harvey explored the responsiveness of Supreme Court decisions to congressional preferences. Harvey reported evidence indicating that,even in constitutional cases,the U.S. Supreme Court defers to congressional preferences,in particular to the preferences of majorities in the House of Representatives (the chamber that originates both impeachment and appropriations actions). [8] [9]
Harvey also found that the Court's rejection of congressionally-enacted restrictions on campaign spending led to increases in the conservatism of state and congressional legislators, [10] and that the Supreme Court's strike of the public accommodations protections in the 1875 Civil Rights Law led to weight losses for Black Civil Army veterans in states without state-level public accommodations statutes,but not for white Civil Army veterans (with Emily A. West). [11]
In Judicial Decision-Making:A Coursebook (with Tom S. Clark,Barry Friedman,Allison Larsen,Margaret H. Lemos,and Andrew D. Martin),Harvey and co-authors integrated approaches to judicial decision-making drawn from both the social sciences and from legal thought. [12]
