Jurisprudential Regimes : The Supreme Court, Civil Rights, and the Life Cycle of Judicial Doctrine

Marlowe's work draws on institutional-based Supreme Court literature, American Political Development literature, and emerging jurisprudential regime literature to argue that Court doctrine in caselaw follows a life cycle pattern consisting of a pre-governance phase, where the Court has not settled on a doctrinal test to apply consistently, a governance phase, where the Court establishes and consistently applies one doctrinal test in a given area of caselaw, and a post-governance phase, where consensus regarding the existing doctrinal test breaks down. She examines the life cycle pattern and its applicability to jurisprudential regimes within the context of 14th Amendment equal protection challenges as it pertains to race. The life cycle pattern is successfully borne out, with three regimes demonstrated to date, all following the three-phase pattern.