Communicating Judicial Retirement
Northwestern Public Law Research Paper No. 14-32
Bustos, A., & Jacobi, T. (2015). Communicating judicial retirement. International Review of Law and Economics, 43, 107-118.
50 Pages Posted: 13 Jun 2014 Last revised: 21 Feb 2020
Date Written: June 11, 2014
Abstract
Justices can strategically shape perceptions of their likely retirements, and so influence the President and Senate in choosing an ideologically compatible replacement. Relatively new justices can vote insincerely to affect how their ideologies are perceived, but their signaling options are shaped by older justices’ expected retirement probabilities. We show that “strong messages” of retirement are likely when new justices vote insincerely and the new and retiring justices’ ideologies are aligned. “Weak messages” are more likely when new justices vote sincerely or, if they do vote insincerely, the old and new justice ideologies are unaligned.
Keywords: Retirement, Supreme Court, Costless Signaling
JEL Classification: K10, K30, K40
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation