#blackmun papers

[empiricalscotus]

Locating Weak Causal Strands in the Justices' Opinions

Locating Weak Causal Strands in the Justices' Opinions...Something new and hopefully a welcome distraction into the world of Supreme Court decision making

In the introduction to the eye opening work on the Supreme Court certiorari process Deciding to Decide, author H.W. Perry summarizes the Court’s lack of institutional transparency. Perry wrote, “Although some rules are published, most of the internal procedures are by consensus, are unpublished, and are frequently unknown” (p. 17). Perry goes on, “We on the outside find out about them only when a…

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[empiricalscotus]

Supreme Court Justice T.V. News Coverage

Supreme Court Justices live dual lives. On one hand they predominately manage to stay out of the limelight while actually doing their jobs. Even with pressure to the contrary, the justices have managed to keep cameras out of the Court, and to limit the release of audio recordings of oral arguments to the Fridays after the arguments are heard. The justices other interactions with one another are…

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[empiricalscotus]

A New Way of Defining Oral Argument Terrain

#EmpiricalSCOTUS New data/findings on 2016 Supreme Court oral arguments

Oral arguments are one of the more empirically studied areas of Supreme Court decision making.  This may make intuitive sense. Oral arguments are one of the few moments where the justices’ decision making process transpires before members of the public.  Audio of these arguments is recorded and accessible to anyone with an internet connection.  Video…well that’s another story.  Still, there is…

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