Policy making by the lower federl courts and the bureaucracy: The genesis of a national AIDS policy

Abstract

This study investigates how and why judicial-bureaucratic interaction contributed to the development of a national, anti-discrimination AIDS policy in the field of education. It confirms that the lower federal courts and bureaucrats are important but over-looked policy makers. By reviewing the actual decisions, bureaucratic regulations and recommendaions, it traces the incremental development of the AIDS policy. This illustrates that the courts can both fulfill their traditional roles of examiner of administrative procedures and defenders of individual rights, and are competent to craft complex social policy.