2008 Conference Program - Midwest Political Science Association

Thursday, April 3-10:00 am
42-4 OPINIONS AND COALITIONS
Room UEH 403 on the 4th Floor, Thur at 10:00 am
Chair Scott A. Hendrickson, Elizabethtown College
hendricksons@etown.edu
Paper Cognitive Dissonance on the U.S. Supreme Court
This paper applies cognitive dissonance theory to explain opinion
authorship on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Paul Michael Collins, University of North Texas
pmcollins@unt.edu
Paper Was it Something I Said: Losing the Majority on the Canadian
Supreme Court
The judge initially assigned the responsibility of writing the
judgment of the Court has lost the votes 150 times since 1984. This
paper will consider this block of cases, name the winners and losers,
and identify the most significant cases.
Peter James McCormick, University of Lethbridge
mccormick@uleth.ca
Paper Institutional Uncertainty and Judicial Influence Over
Bureaucracy
This paper develops a game theoretical model to examine how
institutional uncertainty within the federal circuit courts influences
federal agencies’ choice of enforcement tools between litigation and
settlement.
Quan Li, University of Central Florida
quanli@mail.ucf.edu
Paper A Spatial Model of Voting Fluidity on the U.S. Supreme Court
We model the process of opinion assignment and circulation on
the US Supreme Court as a bargaining process to build a winning
coalition in a one-dimensional policy space. This spatial model
provides new explanations for voting fluidity on the court.
Min Ye, Coastal Carolina University
mye@coastal.edu
Jennifer K. Luse, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
jkluse@uwm.edu
Disc. Richard Lee Vining, University of Georgia
rvining@uga.edu
42-17 BUILDING DECISIONS
Room PDR 7 on the 3rd Floor, Thur at 10:00 am
Chair Michael Andrew Unger, Ramapo College
unger@ramapo.edu
Paper Junior Judges The Hiring and Utilization of Federal District
Court Law Clerks
Drawing on original data gathered from the survey of over 300
federal district court judges, this paper examines the rules and
norms surrounding the hiring and utilization of federal district court
law clerks.
Todd Christian Peppers, Roanoke College
peppers@roanoke.edu
Micheal Giles, Emory University
mgiles@emory.edu
Bridget Tainer Parkins, Washington and Lee University School of
Law
bmtainer@roanoke.edu
Paper U.S. Courts of Appeals Review of Agency Decisions: Law or
Politics
This study tests hypotheses predicting whether the large number of
agency-favorable decisions made by the U.S. Courts of Appeals is a
function of judges’ ideological agreement with agency positions or a
function of legal constraints.
Jerry D. Thomas, University of Kentucky
Jerry.Thomas@eku.edu
Paper
Paper
Disc.
How the Marshall Court Fabricated the Unconstitutionality
Claim in Marbury
Marbury vs. Madison departed from settled legal doctrine by
asserting the grant of mandamus authority in the Judiciary Act
conferred original jurisdiction on the Supreme Court. As a
prerogative writ, mandamus did not involve original jurisdiction.
Thomas Y. Davies, University of Tennessee
davies@libra.law.utk.edu
Hustle and Flow: The Visualization of Federal Law Clerk
Traffic with Insights about the Prestige and Influence of Actors
in the Judicial Social Network
Having collected available information for all Artilce III federal
judicial law clerks employed during the final decade of the
Rehnquist Court, we use these approximately 20,000 events to craft
a series of network visualizations of clerk flow.
Daniel M. Katz, University of Michigan
dmartink@umich.edu
Derek K. Stafford, University of Michigan
dstaff@umich.edu
Matthew M. Schneider, University of Tennessee
mschne11@utk.edu
43-1 DOCTRINE MATTERS: ANALYSIS OF COURT
ARGUMENTS (Co-sponsored with Judicial Politics, see
42-29)
Room Suite 9-250 on the 9th Floor, Thur at 10:00 am
Chair Michael Fine, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
Paper
Paper
Paper
Paper
Disc.
finemr@uwec.edu
The Privatization of Public Law: Contracting the State
The privatization of public law, including use of private military
forces, is a serious challenge to the rule of law which, if unchecked,
could pervert not only accountability but even the autonomy of
states and the notion of public authority.
Catherine Warrick, Villanova University
catherine.warrick@villanova.edu
Meeting the Demands of Modern Governance: Justice Byron
White
This paper explores Justice Byron White's administrative law
jurisprudence and suggests he was particularly sensitive to the
demands modern governance places upon civil servants.
John M. Aughenbaugh, Virginia Commonwealth University
jmaughenbaug@vcu.edu
Structural Due Process
The concept of substantive due process cannot be supported by the
historical record. A more historically sound approach, structural due
process, suggests that the courts should protect fundamental rights
through the system of separation of powers.
Joseph S. Devaney, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay
68Devaney@cua.edu
Hobgoblin or Textualist Justice Scalia’s Separation of Powers
This paper explores Justice Scalia's textualism as it relates to his
approach to the doctrine of separation of powers. I attempt to show
that his conception of separation of powers is inconsistent with that
of the Framers of the Constitution.
Christopher E. Thuot, Northern Illinois University
cthuot@niu.edu
Michael Fine, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
finemr@uwec.edu
Helen J. Knowles, SUNY, Oswego
knowles@oswego.edu
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