Books

Bartels, Brandon L., and Christopher D. Johnston. 2020. Curbing the Court: Why the Public Constrains Judicial Independence. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Bartels, Brandon L., and Chris W. Bonneau, Eds. 2014.  Making Law and Courts Research Relevant: The Normative Implications of Empirical Research. New York, NY: Routledge.  [Amazon] [Google Books]

• Based on our Workshop on the Normative Implications of Empirical Research on Law and Courts, funded by the National Science Foundation.

Peer-reviewed Articles and Chapters

2024. “Toward a Theory of the 'The Public' in Research on the Relationship Between Public Opinion and Supreme Court Outcomes.” In Research Handbook of Judicial Politics, eds. Michael Fix and Matthew Montgomery. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing (Forthcoming). [Preliminary draft]

2023. “Can Democratic Principles Protect High Courts from Partisan Backlash? Public Reactions to the Kenyan Supreme Court’s Role in the 2017 Election Crisis,” with Jeremy Horowitz and Eric Kramon. American Journal of Political Science 67(3): 790-807. [Full-text version with some limited features; published online in October 2021]

• Winner, "Best Journal Article Award" for 2023 from the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association.

2022. “Courts and Public Opinion: A Critical Review.” In Handbook on Politics and Public Opinion, Ed. Thomas J. Rudolph. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

2022. "All the President's Justices? The Impact of Presidential Copartisanship on Supreme Court Job Approval," with Eric Kramon. American Journal of Political Science 66(1): 171-186. [Full-text version with some limited features; published online in August 2021]

2020. "Does Public Support for Judicial Power Depend on Who is in Political Power? Testing a Theory of Partisan Alignment in Africa," with Eric Kramon. American Political Science Review 114(1): 144-163. [published online in November 2019]

2018. "The Supreme Court and Public Opinion." In Oxford Bibliographies in Political Science. Ed. Sandy Maisel. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

2016.  “Genuine Leader or Merely ‘First Among Equals?’ Probing the Leadership Capacity of the Chief Justice,” with Phillip Wininger. In The Chief Justice: Appointment and Influence, eds. David Danelski and Artemus Ward. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

2015.  “The Nature of Legal Change on the U.S. Supreme Court: Jurisprudential Regimes Theory and Its Alternatives,” with Andrew J. O’Geen. American Journal of Political Science 59(4): 880-895 . [Data and replication]  [Supporting Information]

2015.  "Public Opinion, Policy Tools, and the Status Quo: Evidence from a Survey Experiment," with Jake Haselswerdt. Political Research Quarterly 68(3):607-21.

2015.  “Lawyers' Perceptions of the U.S. Supreme Court: Is the Court a ‘Political’ Institution?” with Christopher D. Johnston and Alyx Mark. Law & Society Review 49(3):761-94.  [Online Appendix]

2015. “The Sources and Consequences of Polarization in the U.S. Supreme Court.” In American Gridlock, eds. James Thurber and Antoine Yoshinaka. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

2015. "Beyond ‘Fixed versus Random Effects’: A Framework for Improving Substantive and Statistical Analysis of Panel, TSCS, and Multilevel Data.” In Quantitative Research in Political Science, ed. Robert J. Franzese. Sage.  [Online Appendix]

2014.  “Ideology, the Affordable Care Act Ruling, and Supreme Court Legitimacy,” with Christopher D. Johnston and D. Sunshine Hillygus. Public Opinion Quarterly 78(4):963-73.

2013.  “On the Ideological Foundations of Supreme Court Legitimacy in the American Public,” with Christopher D. Johnston. American Journal of Political Science 57(1):184-99.  [Data and replication]  [Supporting Information]

2012.  “Political Justice? Perceptions of Politicization and Public Preferences Toward the Supreme Court Appointment Process,” with Christopher D. Johnston. Public Opinion Quarterly 76(1):105-16.

2011.  “Politics at the Checkout Line: Explaining Political Consumerism in the U.S,” with Benjamin J. Newman. Political Research Quarterly 64(4):803-17.

2011.  “The Dynamic Properties of Individual-Level Party Identification in the United States,” with Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier, Corwin D. Smidt, and Renee M. Smith. Electoral Studies 30(1):210-22.

2011.  “Choices in Context: How Case-Level Factors Shape the Magnitude of Ideological Voting on the U.S. Supreme Court.” American Politics Research 39(1):142-75. [Online Appendix]

2010.  "Sensationalism and Sobriety: Differential Media Exposure and Attitudes Toward American Courts," with Christopher D. Johnston. Public Opinion Quarterly 74(2):260-85.

2010. "Top-Down and Bottom-Up Models of Judicial Reasoning." In The Psychology of Judicial Decision Making, David Klein and Gregory Mitchell, eds. Oxford University Press.

2009.  "The Constraining Capacity of Legal Doctrine on the U.S. Supreme Court." American Political Science Review 103(3):474-95.

2009.  "Explaining Processes of Institutional Opinion Leadership," with Diana C. Mutz. Journal of Politics 71(1):249-61. [Web Appendix]

2008.  "Sounding the Fire Alarm: The Role of Interest Groups in the Lower Court Confirmation Process," with Nancy Scherer and Amy Steigerwalt. Journal of Politics 70(4):1026-39. [Web Appendix]

2005.  "The Incidence and Timing of PAC Contributions to Incumbent U.S. House Members, 1993-94," with Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier and Peter M. Radcliffe.Legislative Studies Quarterly 30(November): 549-79.  [Data, replication materials, and the online appendix]

2005.  "On Being a Lone Dissenter," with Donald Granberg. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 35:1849-58.

2005.  "Ambivalence Toward American Political Institutions: Sources and Consequences." with Kathleen M. McGraw. In Ambivalence and the Structure of Political Opinion, eds. Stephen C. Craig and Michael D. Martinez. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Academic Blogging

2020. "Why Americans are perfectly willing to undermine the integrity and independence of the Supreme Court," with Christopher D. Johnston. Washington Post, Monkey Cage Blog. Oct. 23, 2020.

2020. "Why is this polarized Supreme Court showing moderation?" with Christopher D. Johnston. Fifteen Eight Four: Academic Perspectives from Cambridge University Press. Oct. 14, 2020.

2018.  "It took conservatives 50 years to get a reliable majority on the Supreme Court. Here are 3 reasons why." The Washington Post, The Monkey Cage. June 29, 2018.

2017.  "Kenyans Vote Again Today. Here's What They Think About the Current Election Crisis," with Jeremy Horowitz and Eric Kramon. The Washington Post, The Monkey Cage. Oct. 26, 2017.

2016.  "When Was the Last Supreme Court Nomination in Which Stakes Were This High? Maybe Never." The Washington Post, The Monkey Cage. Feb. 25, 2016.

2012.  "Evaluating Forecasts of the Supreme Court's Health Care Ruling." The Monkey Cage, July 19, 2012.

2010.  Guest Contributor for the legal blog, Concurring Opinions (Spring and Summer 2010).

Additional Writings

2014.  "Experiments in Law and Courts Research: Opportunities, Issues, and Suggestions." Law and Courts Newsletter, Spring 2014.

2012.  "Psychological Approaches to Judicial Behavior: Opportunities and Challenges." Law and Courts Newsletter, Fall 2012.

2012.  "What Did We Learn From the Kagan Appointment Process?" Extension of Remarks (Newsletter of the APSA's Legislative Studies Section), July 2012.