Litigating Policy Drift
Frozen Categories and Thresholds in Court
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6322896 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ursula Hackett (0000-0002-1768-9006, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 1065-1076 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Perspectives on Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1537-5927 • E-ISSN: 1541-0986 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s153759272300292x |
| OpenAlex | W4389923974 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 30 |
The combination of rigid policy rules with shifting political, economic, and social environments can produce drift: policy change without formal modification. We know much about the political origins and consequences of drift but little about the legal battles that accelerate or impede it. I identify two distinct forms of policy rigidity that generate drift: interval freezing and categorical freezing. Drawing from recent and historical cases encompassing voting rights, racial discrimination, religious conscience protections, and other hot-button issues, I argue that drifting policies possess several sources of legal resilience: injuries are difficult to identify; judges can be persuaded of the merits of restraint, textual formalism, and bright-line rules; and policy makers plausibly deny any intentional action in pursuit of controversial outcomes. Drift is not an automatic and unremarkable process of continual policy change but rather the outcome of high-stakes political and legal contestation over how rigid policy thresholds and categories should be adapted to meet shifting conditions
Categorical variable · Conscience · Law and economics · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Voting · Computer Science · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Policy Transfer and Learning · Social Policy and Reform Studies
Drift and conversion
Informal Caregiving and the Politics of Policy Drift in the United States
Policy Feedback
Policy Drift
Economic Inequality and the Violation Economy
The Political Effects of Policy Drift
The Collapse of Constitutional Originalism and the Rise of the Notion of the “Living Constitution” in the Course of American State-Building
Reassessing Policy Drift
Ideas and Institutional Change in Social Security
Policy drift and its reversal
Policy termination as a political process
Institutional Control of Redistricting and the Geography of Representation
Courts and the Puzzle of Institutional Stability and Change
Institutional Strangulation
Deterring Wage Theft
Chevron, State Farm, and the Impact of Judicial Doctrine on Bureaucratic Policymaking
The Policyscape and the Challenges of Contemporary Politics to Policy Maintenance
After the “Master Theory
From metaphors to measures
How Party Polarization Affects Governance
Bringing the Courts Back In
Privatizing Risk without Privatizing the Welfare State
The Supreme Court as an Agent of Policy Drift
Changing Marriage Patterns Since 1970
Winner-Take-All Politics
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |