Communications research and the rule of law: An opportunity for access to judicial decision making

TLDR: The authors argue that students of communication should become more immediately involved in legal decision making by targeting behavioral research at topics under litigation and by pressing their studies as friends of the courts, arguing that the judiciary is the component of the American political system most receptive to institutional reform.

Abstract: This essay argues that students of communication should become more immediately involved in legal decision making by targeting behavioral research at topics under litigation and by pressing their studies as friends of the courts. The judiciary is the component of the American political system most receptive to institutional reform. Yet, communications research input is virtually non‐existent in at least two critical areas of First Amendment legal theory. The means whereby scholarship from our field can be brought to bear on the judiciary are easily attainable if the Supreme Court's long standing challenge is accepted.