MICHAEL A. DICHIO portrait
  • Assistant Professor, Political Science Department

Publications

  • Editor of Publius's Annual Review of American Federalism special issue, featuring 6 articles examining the latest policy developments affecting intergovernmental relations of the preceding year. Published, 07/24/2024.
    https://academic.oup.com/publius/issue/54/3
  • Michael Dichio & Igor Logvinenko (2024). Stewards, defenders, progenitors, and collaborators: Courts in the age of democratic decline. Law & Policy. Published, 07/10/2024.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/lapo.12251
  • Editor of Law & Policy special issue, "Global Perspectives on Judicial Politics and Democratic Backsliding," which includes ten articles by fifteen scholars, providing an in-depth analysis of the judicial politics in the context of democratic backsliding. Five of the articles focus on the U.S. judiciary, examining its unique position in both enabling and resisting democratic backsliding. The other five present case studies from Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, showcasing diverse tactics, approaches, and outcomes used by courts to react in a variety of ways to actors in these political systems. Published, 07/10/2024.
    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/toc/10.1111/(I...
  • Rebecca Bromley-Trujillo and Michael A Dichio (2024). The State of American Federalism 2023–2024: Judicialization of Gridlocked Politics. Publius: The Journal of Federalism. Published, 07/02/2024.
    https://doi.org/10.1093/publius/pjae022
  • Michael Dichio & Igor Logvinenko (2024). "'Culture and Practice Eat Documents For Lunch:' Norms and Procedures in the 2020 Election Cases" . Law & Policy. Published, 03/11/2024.
    https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/l...
  • Michael Dichio & Phillip Singer (2023). State Attorneys General and Their Challenges to Federal Policies: Insights from the Texas v. California Litigation Regarding the Affordable Care Act . Publius: The Journal of Federalism. Published, 03/08/2023.
    https://doi.org/10.1093/publius/pjad007
  • Michael Dichio & Ilya Somin (2022). Rethinking the Supreme Court's Impact on American Federalism and Centralization . Publius: The Journal of Federalism. Published, 09/23/2022.
    https://doi.org/10.1093/publius/pjac035
  • Michael Dichio & Logan Strother, Ryan Williams (2022). ‘To Render Prompt Justice’ : The Origins and Construction of the U.S. Court of Claims . Studies in American Political Development. 18. Published, 08/04/2022.
    https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in...
  • Michael Dichio & Igor Logvinenko (2021). "Authoritarian Populism, Courts and Democratic Erosion What Americans Can Learn from the Rest of the World". Just Security. Published, 02/11/2021.
    https://www.justsecurity.org/74624/authoritarian-p...
  • Michael A. Dichio (2020). The Problems Litigating Hardrock Mining . University Press of Colorado. Published, 05/11/2020.
    https://upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorad...
  • Michael A. Dichio (2019). Review of "Courts in Federal Countries: Federalist or Unitarists?". Vol. 50. Publius: The Journal of Federalism. Published, 10/03/2019.
    https://academic.oup.com/publius/article/50/1/e1/5...
  • Michael A. Dichio (2018). The US Supreme Court and the Centralization of Federal Authority. SUNY Press. Published, 12/01/2018.
    https://www.sunypress.edu/p-6647-the-us-supreme-co...

Research Statement

I study how American judicial institutions are created and evolve over time, and how political actors, inside and outside of courts, use law and legal institutions to influence constitutional change, federalism, and state building.

 

Research Keywords

  • Supreme Court
  • State-building
  • Federalism
  • Constitutional Law
  • American Political Development

Presentations

  • "The Court of Claims as a Window onto Judicial Independence" presented at the University of Utah Judicial Independence Research Workshop. Presentation, Presented, 06/05/2024.
  • "SCOTUS and the Affordable Care Act: Congressional Credit Claiming and Blame Avoidance" at the Western Political Science Association Conference. Vancouver, BC, March 28-30, 2024. Conference Paper, Presented, 03/30/2024.
  • "An Analytical History of the Court of Claims, 1856-1876" presented by my co-author, Professor Logan Strother (Purdue University) at the Tempe Mission Palms resoirt hosted by the Cneter or American Institutions at Arizona State University . Presentation, Presented, 02/02/2024.
  • “Norms and Procedures: Courts and Democratic Backsliding in the United States” (with Igor Logvinenko), at workshop on “Courts and Authoritarian Populism: the United States in Comparative Perspective,” Occidental College. Conference Paper, Presented, 12/16/2022.
    https://www.oxy.edu/academics/global-engagement/yo...
  • "Statutory Review on the Roberts Court: the Least Activist in U.S. History?" Presented at the Policy History Conference 2022. Tempe, AZ . Conference Paper, Presented, 06/03/2022.
  • "Trump, Courts, and Democratic Backsliding in a Comparative Perspective." Presented at the 2022 Western Political Science Association Conference, Portland, OR. Conference Paper, Presented, 03/10/2022.
  • "Policy Retrenchment through the Judiciary: The Curious Case of Texas v. Azar" (with Phillip Singer). American Political Science Association Virtual Meeting, September 9-13, 2021. Conference Paper, Presented, 09/10/2020.
    https://www.apsanet.org/Portals/54/docs/APSA%20AM%...
  • Panelist for a Hinkcley Institute of Politics Forum, "Power to the People: US Voting Rights." . Invited Talk/Keynote, Presented, 10/30/2019.
  • "The General Mining Act of 1872 and American State Formation." Western Political Science Association, San Diego, CA . Conference Paper, Presented, 04/18/2019.