Abstract
When deciding whether to grant a preliminary injunction or a stay pending appeal, courts consider, among other factors, whether granting the preliminary injunction or stay would disserve the public interest. In the context of individual-rights cases, courts often experience pressure to remedy the alleged constitutional harms immediately. However, behavioral-economic concepts demonstrate that such quick action can negatively affect society as a whole. Specifically, granting a right and then taking it away, as happens when a lower court grants a right and is reversed on appeal, results in a net loss to society. Using the recent same-sex marriage litigation, this analysis demonstrates that to avoid disserving the public interest, courts should consider the behavioral-economic effects of loss aversion and the endowment effect within the public-interest factor of the tests for preliminary relief and should attempt to maintain the status quo until the decisions are final.
Citation
Alison M. Newman,
Doing the Public a Disservice: Behavioral Economics and Maintaining the Status Quo,
64 Duke Law Journal
1173-1212
(2015)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/dlj/vol64/iss6/4