Minimum Winning Coalitions on the U.S. Supreme Court

Abstract

It has been claimed that in nonthreat situations opinions of the Court tend to receive a minimum winning vote. Using the private papers of Justice Burton, the size of the original vote on the merits was compared with the size of the opinion vote. No support was found for the minimum winning thesis except that smaller than minimum winning coalitions at the original vote tended to become minimum winning at the opinion stage. This finding, however, can be explained as a consequence of the desire of the opinion writer to secure an authoritative opinion of the Court.