Exploring the Participation of Organized Interests in State Court Litigation

Abstract

For nearly five decades, scholars have explored interest group involve ment in courts, with their insights providing substantive and, eventually, theoretical breakthroughs. While the early pluralists noted instances of groups litigation in both federal and state courts, virtually all modern-day scholars have focused their attention on federal arenas. This emphasis is hardly surprising: we do not know whether or not interest groups participate in state court litigation in numbers sufficient to warrant investigation. In an effort to fill this gap, I address two interrelated questions about litigation in state courts: has interest group use of state judicial systems increased over the past four decades and has the scope of litigation activity expanded to incorporate a wider range of interests? An examination of litigation activity in sixteen state supreme courts generally answers these questions affirmatively. It indicates a heightened presence of organized interests; it also shows that a wider range of groups now participate. Even so, growth occurred unevenly; some states evinced precisely the kind of patterns I anticipated, while others were far more erratic.