STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION AND CONGRESSIONAL RESPONSE

To understand why Congress is prompted to react to Supreme Court feder al statutory construction decisions, we examine two different explanat ions of this phenomenon. The first focuses on the role that political actors, such as the president, the public, and interest groups, and sa lient issues play in the legislative process. The second explanation i s based on the work of scholars who argue that ideological differences between the Supreme Court and Congress are important in provoking leg islative reactions to Court rulings. The results of our analysis indic ate that public opinion, salient cases, and Court invitations to Congr ess to revise its rulings are statistically significant predictors of some minimal level of congressional reaction, whereas the position of the president and partisan control of government help determine when t he Congress is able to pass decision modification legislation. Ideolog ical differences between the High Court and congressional committees a nd the full chambers are generally statistically insignificant factors .