rewritten questions

[Howard Gillman]

At 08:38 AM 11/18/99 -700, you wrote:
>I have noticed that in the recent batch of cert grants, the Court has
>rewritten the question presented. In the past, this was somewhat
>unusual (though not unprecedented). It was somewhat more common for
>the Court to limit the grant to one or more of the questions
>presented, but to rewrite the question was rare. Do any Court
>watchers have a theory about why this practice seems to be on the
>rise?

Among political scientists the Court's practice of rewriting, suppressing,
or adding issues after cert grants is called "issue fluidity," and it is
studied mostly by judicial behavioralists.  See, for example, Kevin T.
McGuire and Barbara Palmer, "Issue fluidity on the U.S. Supreme Court,"
American Political Science Review, Sept 1995 v89 n3 p691(12).

Howard Gillman
USC Political Science