Court structure shapes which policy issues a supreme court can address.

Evidence

By diverting routine cases to intermediate appellate courts, a state allows its supreme court to devote its attention to cases that raise important policy issues and to assume a position of leadership in the legal development of the state. As Chapter 11 shows, some state supreme courts have availed themselves of this opportunity to undertake major initiatives in tort law and constitutional law. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 441

Categorization

• XREF: Parallels the U.S. Supreme Court’s discretionary docket shrinking while it grows more policy-oriented (ch. 16 claim) — same filtering dynamic at the state level. — connects to: Court hierarchies bind lower courts to higher courts’ rulings — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 257; Granting the Supreme Court docket discretion transformed it into a law-developing court.; Judicial decisions result from attitudes, role conceptions, and institutional constraints interacting together. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1286 (+6 more)