⇒ Seen as another access point (particularly the Supreme Court i.e. SCOTUS)
⇒ Courts can only act on cases brought before them so interest groups initiate legislation or bring cases to the courts (e.g. NAACP sponsored the Brown v Board 1954; and ACLU sponsored court cases addressing the holding of terrorist suspects without trial by the Bush administration)
⇒ Amicus curiae briefings are used to influence the courts. They give interest groups the opportunity to present their views to the court through written reports, before the actual case commences (eg. there were 57 amicus briefs sent to the court before California vs Bakke; Apple and Google submitted amicus briefs over the FBI's request for apple to unlock the phone of a terrorist
⇒ They support or oppose judicial nominations e.g. a coalition of pro-labour, environmentalist and womens rights groups opposed Gorsuch)
⇒ Dark money reportedly spent $10 million on Gorsuch's SCOTUS campaign
⇒ Many rival amicus briefs are sent (FBI sent ones back)
⇒ Security of tenure - judges are far harder to influence as their roles are not at risk, so they don’t need endorsements and funding
⇒ Other branches of government - Congress has power to legislate on campaign finance despite Citizens United case
⇒ Previous court decisions - can only be amended by the court