Since underrepresented nominees began filling U.S. Supreme Court seats, political scientists have examined the possibility of existing biases towards potential judges based upon their identities or innate characteristics. Some scholars have identified that the gender identification and ethnic affiliations of candidates have affected the behaviors displayed by those involved in...
Interruptions and asking questions play a vital role in social communication and can exhibit status and power differences in regular conversation. Studies in gender communication describe the way men and women utilize their own linguistic register through the development of social subcultures. The different ways men and women report and...
This thesis examines whether and how interest groups concerned with capital punishment change how they frame the issue when advocating before the Supreme Court via amicus curiae briefs over time. I measured the frequency of frames used throughout amicus briefs submitted in cases pertaining to how the death penalty could...
This study explores the extent to which the United States has conformed to the tenets of classical liberalism and/or civic republicanism with regard to private property and takings law. Mainstream scholarship suggests that classical liberal theory has played a dominant role in American property law since the founding. In the...
The Supreme Court Bar-the lawyers who argue before the US Supreme Court-has historically been an elite and exclusive group. This investigation examines the demographic make-up of the Supreme Court Bar in the Roberts Court and compares it to previous iterations of the Supreme Court Bar, as well as the national...
It has long been recognized by the legal community that when an immigrant seeks relief from deportation proceedings through the United States’ immigration courts, the proceedings they undertake are best seen as a game of chance depending on the Immigration Judge who is randomly assigned to their case. This thesis...
The purpose of this thesis is to provide an overview of the use of solitary confinement and related techniques of isolation in juvenile correctional facilities in the United States. Given that scholars, correctional employees, incarcerated youth, and activists define solitary confinement in varied ways, this thesis attempts to synthesize those...
Visible homelessness is a complex and enduring issue that remains salient in policymaking and political realms. In response to homeless individuals living their lives in public spaces, many cities have enacted civility codes or laws that address quality of life concerns in an attempt to remove visible signs of homelessness...
When running for a political office, a candidate’s platform is important for the voter to understand what the that individual believes. Candidates do not always lay out a concrete platform and tend to stay away from salient issues, such as climate change and its effects, and run on platforms that...
The 2010 U.S. health reforms expanded health insurance access to millions of Americans, mainly through an unprecedented expansion of Medicaid eligibility to those with low incomes. Not all states chose to expand their programs, resulting in disparate health-benefit access nationally. This study uses quantitative and qualitative analyses to explore the...