EXPLAINING CONGRESSIONAL GRANTS OF JURISDICTION TO THE FEDERAL DISTRICT COURTS

This article examines the conditions under which Congress passes jurisdiction-granting legislation, which expands the discretion of the federal district courts by designating them as policy venues. This project extends existing research that has demonstrated that Congress manipulates the parameters of jurisdiction by examining how Congress routinely engages in this activity. I construct and evaluate a comprehensive data set of laws in which Congress grants jurisdiction to the district courts for the period between 1949-2006 (81st-109th Congress). I consider the effect of separation-of-powers and ideological distance on the decision to grant jurisdiction. The results demonstrate that both separation-of-powers and ideological concerns influence such decisions