Given the fundamental unidimensionality in the data on Supreme Court voting patterns 1951–1993 we observe, we are able to determine the identity of “median” members of each court in a fashion that does not require subjective coding of the extent to which particular cases reflect left-right issues. Also, while the exact numerical values of MDS-obtained locations cannot be compared across differe...

On June 18, 1982, the United States Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in the "right to refuse treatment" case Mills (previously Okin) v. Rogers. I The Su~reme Court stated that the case posed a substantive issue, "a definition of l a] protected constitutional interest, as well as identification ofthe conditions under which competing state interests might outweigh it," and a procedur...

Previous studies suggest a significant role of language in the court room, yet none has identified a definitive correlation between vocal characteristics and court outcomes. This paper demonstrates that voice-based snap judgments based solely on the introductory sentence of lawyers arguing in front of the Supreme Court of the United States predict outcomes in the Court. In this study, participa...

In the 2016 case Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt, the US Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the Texas requirements that abortion [2] providers have admitting privileges at local hospitals and that abortion [2] facilities meet ambulatory surgical center standards. Whole Woman?s Health represented abortion [2] care providers in Texas and brought the case against the commissioner for the Tex...

Public interest has become increasingly focused on the role of money in politics. Specifically, the Citizens United v. FEC Supreme Court ruling maintained the legality of unrestricted political expenditures by corporate and union entities. As a result, there has been a proliferation of super PAC, or ‘political action committee’, organizations. While these organizations are not permitted to make...

This survey reviews significant state and federal court decisions from 2006 and 2007 involving health, life, and disability insurance. Also reviewed is a June 2008 Supreme Court decision in the disability insurance realm, affirming that a conflict of interest exists when an ERISA plan sponsor or insurer fulfills the dual role of determining plan benefits and paying those benefits but noting tha...

U.S. Courts of Appeals judges elevate their dissents for ten months prior to Presidential elections. I develop a theoretical model showing that the salience of partisan identities can explain this pattern. I link judges to their states of residence, and exploit temporal variation in the importance of a state during the electoral season. Dissents are elevated in swing states and in states that c...

The legal obligation to disclose was established in the 1990s, but the law became harsher in 2012 when the Supreme Court of Canada decided that people living with HIV must disclose their status before having sex that poses a “realistic possibility of HIV transmission” in R. v. Mabior and R. v. D.C.1 The Supreme Court characterized even very small risks of HIV transmission as “a realistic possib...

Empirically oriented scholars often struggle with how to measure preferences across time and institutional contexts. This article characterizes these difficulties and provides a measurement approach that incorporates information that bridges time and institutions in a Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo approach to ideal point measurement. The resulting preference estimates for presidents, senato...