The Emergence of a New Ideology: the Business Decisions of the Burger Court

Unlike the Vinson and Warren Courts, efforts to cumulatively scale the business decisions of the Burger Court on the basis of the justices' responses toward economic liberalism have proven unsuccessful. Several reasons are advanced for this change including the Court's attitude to transfers of power between state government, federal government, and individual business entities; the exercise of agency or judicial power; and two-case characteristics. Through the use of probit, we find that distinct patterns exist among the independent variables in relation to the direction of the Court's decision. Based on the explanatory power of our model, it is evident that a new ideology has emerged: "instrumental libertarianism," in which the Court effectuates its libertarianism through the exercise of judicial power, agency action, and considerations of federalism.