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PSC 370: American Judicial Politics Fall 2017 KBB 216

Tu Th 2.00pm – 3.50pm Dr. William Myers Email: [email protected] Phone: 813.257.3580 Office: KBB 106 Office Hours: W 1.00pm – 6.00pm and by appointment Course Description: The purpose of this course is to familiarize the student with the organization of American courts, both state and federal, their role in society, the processes in practice through which judges act, and their impact on politics. We will also compare the reality of how judges behave to society’s myths and expectations about how they should function as well as the limits of what can and should be expected of courts and judges. A central theme will be to analyze judges as political players who have a profound impact on the development and implementation of public policy. Course Objectives: At the end of the semester all students should have:

• Experience with investigating the fundamental questions of and influences of politics on the law and judicial decision-making.

• Improved their critical thinking skills. • Conducted original research using statistical analysis. • Learned how to effectively write a research paper.

Required Texts: Carp, Robert A., Ronald Stidham, Kenneth L. Manning, and Lisa M. Holmes. 2017. Judicial Process in America, 10th Edition. Washington D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press. In addition to the text, there will be cases and other supplementary material posted on Blackboard that is required reading. Course Requirements: You are expected to attend every class meeting. You are expected to read everything assigned on the syllabus. This means you are to complete the assigned reading prior to each class. Visiting me during office hours to discuss issues from the reading or raised during class is a very good idea. If you attend class and are prepared for class you will have set yourself up to do very well in the course. If you do not do these things then you will not do well in this course. You will be evaluated based on your performance in five areas. The biography paper, research exercises, research paper, and research presentation must be completed in order to receive a grade for this course. Attendance and Participation – 20% Biography Paper – 30%

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Research Paper – 20% Research Exercises – 20% (four exercises – 5% each) Research Presentation – 10% Participation and Attendance (20%) Every student is expected to actively engage in class discussions. This course covers a variety of topics that have strong connections to current issues and events in the United States. I will frequently use the discussion of those events and issues to enhance and deepen our class discussions and I encourage each of you to think through and seek out those connections and examples as well. You will be challenged and you will have to learn to express your beliefs and engage in debate constructively. Many of you may not feel comfortable expressing your thoughts in a group setting for a variety of reasons. If you are anxious or nervous, the best way to overcome this is by practicing doing it. If you’re afraid of saying something wrong, don’t be. Failure is good. Failing quickly is even better. This is how we learn. If you’re not sure your thoughts are shared by others, then it’s even more important for you to share them. Diversity of opinion is critically important because this is how knowledge is advanced. Your thoughts are different than mine because of the differences in our experiences and our knowledge base. Most significant advancements in science and knowledge are related to thinking about an idea a slightly different way than the way it has been thought of previously. If you don’t share your thoughts then we will not advance. Biography Paper (30%) For your biography paper, you will author a biography of a Supreme Court justice focusing on that justice’s career before the justice took his or her seat on the Supreme Court. You will be expected to integrate and connect the course readings throughout, which means you should be prepared to discuss how the course material is consistent with (or not) your justice’s experiences. Your paper must be 8-10 pages in length (not including title page, references, tables or figures), include a title page, 12 point Times New Roman font, standard margins (1” top-bottom, 1” left- right), double spaced, all figures and tables moved to the end of the paper after the references, include page numbers and must cite all references in CMS format. Failure to properly cite material will be deemed to be plagiarism and you will receive a zero for the assignment. Please see the following resource for any questions about CMS format: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01/ Also see the following resource for differences between MLA, APA, and CMS: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20110928111055_949.pdf Papers that do not meet all of the formatting requirements will not be accepted. Papers are due at the beginning of class (within 5 minutes of class starting). Late papers will not be accepted unless accompanied with a documented medical excuse, which the instructor reserves the right to accept or not. Papers that do not meet all of the formatting requirements will not be accepted. It will consist of three main parts:

1. Introduction and Background: You will introduce your justice, providing information on the justice’s background before joining the Supreme Court. When and where was the justice born and what did his or her parents do for a living? Where did the justice attend college and law school? Did the justice play any prominent roles during his or her

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college law school career? Where was the justice employed before joining the Court? Did the justice engage in any particularly salient litigation before joining the Court, as an attorney or judge?

2. Nomination: You will discuss the president’s nomination of the justice to the Supreme Court. When was the justice nominated and by which president? Which sitting justice was the nominee appointed to replace? Why did the president nominate this individual? When addressing the last question, you should focus on: (1) whether the justice’s ideology matched that of the president who nominated the justice; (2) the justice’s qualifications for sitting on the Supreme Court (including his or her rating from the American Bar Association); (3) whether the justice had a personal relationship with the president before the nomination; (4) whether the president used the nomination to build political support for his administration.

3. Confirmation: You will discuss the events that surrounded the justice’s confirmation in the U.S. Senate. What was the political environment surrounding the justice’s confirmation? Which party was in control of the senate? Was this a period of unified or divided government? How popular was the president at the time of the nomination? What issues were raised at the justice’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee? What interest groups supported or opposed the nomination? How did the Senate Judiciary Committee and full senate vote on the confirmation? When did the justice take his or her seat on the Court?

Papers are due at the beginning of class (within 5 minutes of class starting) on October 17th. Research Exercises (20% - four exercises, 5% each) In anticipation of the data analysis that will be part of your research paper, there will be three research or data exercises that will help you learn how to interact with and use data effectively. All students must attend all three data labs; this is non-negotiable as each session is critical to the research paper. At the end of each data lab the data exercises for that day are due. The data labs will take place on November 7th, 14th, 16th and 21st. More detailed information about the exercises will be posted on Blackboard. Research Paper (20%) For your research paper, you will develop and test a theory of judicial decision making, using a single Supreme Court justice as a case study. Specifically, you will critically evaluate the justice that you selected for your biography paper and their voting behavior. You are free to develop and test any hypothesis in relation to judicial decision making. For example, you might ask: Is Justice X influenced by his or her ideology in Y cases? Is Justice X influenced by their background Z in Y cases? These questions are meant to be suggestive and are by no means exhaustive. You will be expected to integrate and connect the course readings throughout. Your paper will be structured similarly to the journal articles we will read this semester and must be 10-12 pages in length (not including title page, references, tables or figures), include a title page, 12 point Times New Roman font, standard margins (1” top-bottom, 1” left-right), double spaced, all figures and tables moved to the end of the paper after the references, include page numbers and must cite all references in CMS format. Failure to properly cite material will be deemed to be plagiarism and you will receive a zero for the assignment. Please see the following

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resource for any questions about CMS format: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/717/01/ Also see the following resource for differences between MLA, APA, and CMS: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/media/pdf/20110928111055_949.pdf Papers that do not meet all of the formatting requirements will not be accepted. Papers are due at the beginning of class (within 5 minutes of class starting). Late papers will not be accepted unless accompanied with a documented medical excuse, which the instructor reserves the right to accept or not. Papers that do not meet all of the formatting requirements will not be accepted. It will consist of the following parts:

a) Introduction: This should be 1 page or three paragraphs long. It should be no longer than six paragraphs, and always less than 3 pages. You should have no or few citations. Your first paragraph states the puzzle/dilemma to be solved or question to be answered. You may use a famous quote to begin with. Second paragraph summarizes the two sides in the literature about this puzzle/dilemma/question. Third paragraph summarizes your answer and gives a one sentence “map” of what you are doing in this paper.

b) Literature Review and Road Map: In two pages or less you cite evidence for the puzzle or question you address. This usually involves citations from the literature, but it may involve actually building the case (in which case, give yourself 3 pages for this section). Then outline the major analogies used to address the puzzle/question, with group citations, led by the major works. This is where you make the case for your paper being an important part of the debate in the literature. There are two sides in every debate. Discuss the literature this way, divide it in two sides. You are adding to one side. Lastly, give a brief road map of what is to follow in your paper (1 paragraph as a transition).

c) Theory:

i. Your argument/explanation: State your argument/explanation, beginning with your conclusion, going through your premises and ending with a QED (although perhaps not literally). Make it as simple as possible and use as little jargon as possible. You want people to read it and get it. Use figures, models, analogies here. Indeed, the core point here is for people to understand, appreciate and believe your core analogy about how the world works. That is what we are really arguing about in science.

ii. Your hypotheses/predictions. Next derive your hypotheses from your theory

above. These derivations must be deductively valid or there can be no testing of your theory.

d) Data:

i. Your constructs and construct validity: Next you define how you are going to measure some of the relationships in your theory/analogy/model. You must prove, or make very plausible, that you have very good constructs for the variables and parameters in your theory/model/analogy. This always

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requires the use of more analogies, to relate abstract theoretical constructs to real world observable constructs. Be explicit, be precise, and provide proof that your observable constructs can be derived from the abstract constructs in your theory.

ii. Your test/correlation/exploration: Explain what you are doing here. Tell the

reader what is to follow. If you are conducting a correlation, show how your data analysis will demonstrate that if your theory is true, then this relationship must also be true, thus you have a partial test, using comparative statics, what we call a refutational challenge: that is, if you find the relationship doesn’t hold, we can reject the theory, but if we do find that it holds we can not accept the theory’s hypotheses, as it wasn’t a test. Often case studies are refutational challenges, they are almost never tests.

iii. Describe your data. Define your variables and describe where they are from.

Be explicit, so that anyone could go back and redo your work. If you dropped cases, explain why. If you were limited in your data collection, or the data is truncated, or whatever, explain it.

iv. Discuss any potential methodological concerns and how you resolved them or

what to make of them if you did not resolve them.

e) Results i. Give your results, interpreting them in light of your theory/hypotheses.

Remember, you are testing your analogy, in fact you are testing a string of analogies, and you need not worry, at this point, about external validity.

f) Conclusion. Here is where you worry about external validity, here is where you step

back and LIMIT your findings. You may anticipate criticisms here and provide counter-arguments/evidence. Always conclude with a summary paragraph extolling what you did find, however. Remember, external validity relates to your theory not your findings.

Papers are due at the beginning of class (within 5 minutes of class starting) on December 7th. Research Presentation (10%) Each student will present his or her findings from their research paper during a 5-10 minute presentation during the final exam period. The presentations will take place on Tuesday December 12th from 1.00pm-3.00pm. Presentation materials must be done in PowerPoint and sent to me 24 hours prior to the start of the exam period. Late presentations will not be accepted for any reason. Grade Scale: Letter Grade Meaning Numeric Scale GPA A Outstanding 92-100 4.0 A/B Excellent 89-91 3.5

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B Very Good 82-88 3.0 B/C Good 79-81 2.5 C Average 72-78 2.0 C/D Below Average 68-71 1.5 D Passing 60-67 1.0 F Failure Below 60 0.0 NF No show/Failure Rules, Protocols, Etiquette and General Advice: Academic Integrity: The University of Tampa is committed to the development of each student to become a productive and responsible citizen who embraces the values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. The scholarly community at the University of Tampa strives to instill values that uphold academic integrity and promotes an ethical standard that does not condone academic misconduct. Violation of academic integrity and academic misconduct tarnish the reputation of the University and discredit the accomplishments of past and present students. These actions include cheating, plagiarism, fabrication and academic misconduct. Sanctions for violation of academic integrity and academic misconduct include a failing grade in an assignment or in the course, or suspension or expulsion from the University. I take academic integrity and integrity, in a general sense, very seriously and will monitor all assignments, papers and exams for violations of the academic integrity policy. Students are held responsible for knowing and observing the University’s Academic Integrity Policy posted at: http://www.ut.edu/uploadedFiles/Academics/Provost/UT-AcademicIntegrityPolicies.pdf. If you have any questions about the policy, feel free to talk to me. Special Needs: If there is a student who requires accommodations because of any disability, please go to the Academic Success Center in North Walker Hall for information regarding registering as a student with a disability. You may also call (813) 257-5757 or email [email protected]. Please feel free to discuss this issue with me, in private, if you need more information. Mental Health Counseling: College can be a stressful time in a young person’s life and if at some point during your time at UT you begin to feel depressed or out of control for any reason you should know you are not alone and help is available to you. Mental health counselors are available to you through the Counseling Center at 111 North Brevard Ave (at the Dickey Health and Wellness Center) or you can call 813.253.6250. All students are allowed up to six free consultations per semester with licensed professionals. The time to deal with mental health issues is when they arise. Academic Assistance: The Academic Center for Excellence in North Walker Hall offers free peer tutoring, academic skills courses, national testing services and services for students with disabilities. If you think any of these services might be useful for you I strongly recommend seeking out more information.

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Saunders Writing Center: Tutors are available in the writing center to assist you in all aspects of your writing. It is strongly suggested that all students, not just students who are having problems, to take full advantage of the tutors in the writing center, 323 Plant Hall (Phone: 813.253.6244). You can call or go by in person to make an appointment. Emergency Situations and University Announcements: In the case of any adverse condition or situation which could interrupt the schedule of classes, students are to access www.ut.edu for information about the status of the campus and class meetings. In addition, please refer to Blackboard for announcements and other important information. You are responsible for accessing this information. Email: Treat emails to me as a professional communication. Use a clear subject line. Use a salutation and signature. Use standard punctuation, capitalization, spelling and grammar. Be aware that how you communicate is a reflection of the image that you want to project. I try to respond to all student emails in a timely fashion – this does not mean immediately. I reserve 24 hours to respond to an email during the week and 48 hours on the weekend. Do not ask me a question via email that requires a book length response. Those questions are best left for class or office hours. I will be more than happy to answer those questions, but not over email. Do not email me assignments unless I specifically tell you to do so. I will not accept emailed assignments as they can be frequently lost, attachments can be corrupted or not attached at all. Do not email me questions that can be easily answered by consulting the syllabus. Be resourceful. Do not email me from any other email service besides your UT email. I cannot be certain emails are from you unless it comes from your UT address. I will not respond to any emails from other email services. Tardiness: If you come late to class enter quietly and quickly find a seat so as not to disturb other students. Leaving Class: I will do my best to end class on time if not a few minutes earlier, but sometimes I will need to go over by a minute or two. Out of respect for your fellow classmates and me please do not pack up until I indicate that class is over for the day. Absence Policy: The syllabus provides a schedule and clearly gives due dates for assignments and exams. There is generally no excuse for late papers or exams, as you know about them well in advance. Only in instances where there is an excused absence will there be accommodations made. The only

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way to be granted an excused absence is with prior approval from the instructor. In the event that prior approval is not possible then you must provide documentation detailing the reasons for your excuse. There are two categories of excused absences for which the instructor will make accommodations: scheduled and unscheduled. Scheduled absences involve time conflicts that are known in advance, for which students have notified their instructors and have supplied appropriate documentation. Acceptable reasons for scheduled absences include:

1. Court-imposed legal obligations (e.g., jury duty and subpoenas) 2. Medical procedure 3. Required participation in University-sponsored events (e.g., performances, athletic

events, academic research presentations) 4. Observation of religious holy days 5. Requirements of military service

Unscheduled absences involve unforeseen emergencies such as illness, injury, hospitalization, deaths in the immediate family, consequences of severe weather, and other crises. Students should contact instructors as soon as possible in these cases. Instructors may require documentation or verification to excuse unscheduled absences. If you have questions about what constitutes appropriate documentation please let me know. Employment schedules, athletic training and practice schedules, and personal appointments are not valid reasons for scheduled absences. Procedures for Excused Absences and Make-up Work: Students must give notification to their instructors of scheduled absences in advance as soon as they are aware of it (for approved reasons as noted above). In the event of an emergency unscheduled absence (as described above), students must contact their instructors as soon as possible and provide documentation if required. If an absence qualifies as an excused absence as defined above, the instructor will accommodate the excused absences in a fair manner. The instructor will provide an alternative opportunity to replace missed work or assignments; however, arranging to replace missed work is the responsibility of the student. If an excused absence coincides with other graded work (e.g., homework collection, in-class activities, quizzes, presentations, activities, etc.), the student shall be given an opportunity to replace such work or shall not have that work averaged into the student’s grade, at the discretion of the instructor provided it is not identical to the course’s stated accommodation for an unexcused absence. An instructor may determine that missing a certain amount of participation- dependent activities (whether excused or not) precludes successful accomplishment of learning outcomes. In cases like this, the instructor may advise students to withdraw from such courses. Making up work for unexcused absences may be allowed or declined entirely at the discretion of the instructor.

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Cell Phones: Turn them off or put them on silent when you enter the classroom. Vibrate is not the same as off or silent. If there is a phone call that you must take then leave the classroom as quietly as possible to take it. Texting is rude and distracting so do not text in class. If texting or surfing the web on your phone becomes distracting you will be asked to leave. Computers: No laptops or tablets will be allowed in class. Studies consistently demonstrate that students learn less when laptops are used for note taking. Here is an example of one such study if you are curious: Mueller, Pam A. and Daniel M. Oppenheimer. 2014. “The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking.” Psychological Science 25(6): 1159-1168. Questioning Grades: Grades are not personal, but are a professional evaluation of your work. I do my best to communicate expectations as well as provide comments on assignments that point out areas where you did well and where you need work. Sometimes I miss something and am more than willing to make a correction if the following conditions are met: (1) you wait at least 24 hours but no more than a week after receiving your graded assignment before contacting me about it; (2) you submit in writing (typed and printed out – no email) an explanation of why you think there was a mistake. I will review your submission and give you my final decision within one week of the receipt. Any further appeals on the issue should be directed to the department chair, Dr. Mary Anderson. Any and all grade appeals must be resolved prior to the last day of class. Syllabus Changes: Policies and the schedule in this syllabus are subject to change with advance notification. Schedule: August 29 First Day of Class August 31 Carp et al – Ch. 1 September 5 & 7 Carp et al – Ch. 2 Chutkow – Jurisdiction Stripping (Blackboard) September 12 Carp et al – Ch. 3 September 14 Carp et al – Ch. 4

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September 19 Carp et al – Ch. 5 September 21 Carp et al – Ch. 6 Kozinski – So You Want to be a Federal Judge by 35? (Blackboard) September 26 Barton – An Empirical Study of Supreme Court Justice Pre-Appointment Experience (Blackboard) September 28 Black and Owens – Courting the President (Blackboard) October 3 Farganis and Wedeking – No Hints, No Forecasts, No Previews (Blackboard) October 5 Smelcer et al – Bias and the Bar (Blackboard) Scherer et al – Sounding the Fire Alarm (Blackboard) October 10 Carp et al – Ch. 7 October 12 Carp et al – Ch. 8 October 17 Caldeira and Wright – Organized Interests and Agenda Setting in the U.S. Supreme Court (Blackboard) Caldeira and Wright – Amici Curiae Before the Supreme Court (Blackboard) Biography Paper Due October 19 Collins – Lobbyists Before the U.S. Supreme Court (Blackboard) Box-Steffensmeier et al – Quality over Quantity (Blackboard) October 24 Carp et al – Ch. 13 October 26 Segal and Spaeth – Models of Decision Making: The Legal Model (Blackboard) Segal and Spaeth – Models of Decision Making: The Attitudinal and Rational Choice Models (Blackboard)

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October 31 Segal and Spaeth – The Decision on the Merits: The Attitudinal and Rational Choice Models (Blackboard) November 2 Tate – Personal Attribute Models of the Voting Behavior of U.S. Supreme Court Justices (Blackboard) Boyd et al – Untangling the Causal Effects of Sex on Judging (Blackboard) Blake – God Save This Honorable Court (Blackboard) November 7 Research Lab #1 November 9 Bailey and Maltzman – Does Legal Doctrine Matter? (Blackboard) November 14 Research Lab #2 November 16 Research Lab #3 November 21 Research Lab #4 November 23 Thanksgiving – No Class November 28 Owens et al – How the Supreme Court Alters Opinion Language to Evade Congressional Review (Blackboard) November 30 Carp et al – Ch. 14 December 5 Giles and Walker – Judicial Policy-Making and Southern School Segregation (Blackboard) McGuire – Public Schools, Religious Establishments and the U.S. Supreme Court (Blackboard) December 7 Final Exam Review Research Paper Due December 12 Research Presentations 1.30pm – 3.30pm