This is a path-breaking book. It is the best book I have read on the relationship between timing, framing, and court and political institution impact on public policy. The author finds that if courts, as in New Jersey, or political institutions, as in New York, first frame abortion policy, the institution that first framed the issue influences in significance ways future abortion policy. In each state, courts and political institutions deferred to the originating abortion policy-maker, rather than play a significant role of subsequent abortion policy. Because New Jersey courts first framed abortion issues, elected officials deferred to the courts. This resulted in a legal/rights framing of abortion policy. Because the legislature and governor in New York first framed abortion policy, state courts deferred to elected officials on abortion policy, and allowed a political rather than a legal framing of abortion policy and issues.This book includes superbly written and researched extensive case studies on abortion policy in New York and New Jersey. For comparison, there are less extensive case studies of abortion policy and politics in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Also, for comparison, there is a case study on timing, framing, and the role of courts and political institutions in the making of capital punishment policies in New York and New Jersey. The significance of the findings in each case study come alive, as they are compared with the other case studies, and, most importantly, analyzed, the findings are explored in the light of a very sophisticated model of policy change.The research design is simply superb, as is the author’s knowledge of a wide range of scholarly literatures on law and courts, abortion policy, state politics and policy-making, and the relationships between federal and state courts. This book is a must read for scholars of law and courts of quite different persuasions, American political development, abortion policy, New York and New Jersey politics and courts; and path dependence in courts and political institutions. The book is so well written, that it can be used in a wide range of classes for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Finally, because of the research design, range of methods, and wide venues for comparison, this book will also be a must read for students in courses (or sections of courses) that explore methods and research design for the study of courts.
