Modern-Day Judicial politics : An Analysis Of Federal District Court Decision Making In Contemporary, Politically Divisive Issue Areas

Recent decisions regarding LGBT rights, reproductive rights, and racial and gender equality by U.S. District Courts have illuminated how these lower federal courts are increasingly becoming important policymakers in our political system. However, research to date has only scratched the surface on district court decision making in cases involving significant constitutional issues such as these. The substantial variation among judges (and among states/regions) in the decisions made and resulting policies indicates the existence of powerful, competing influences on district judges. I conduct a comprehensive analysis of many potential influences on district court judges, including individual ideology, personal characteristics, legal factors, and strategy; I also examine the influence of public opinion on judges, a variable that has been heretofore ignored at the district court level, most likely due to the difficulty of obtaining state-level public opinion data. I do so using a unique dataset I’ve created, which includes every district court case over a 22-year period (1991-2012) involving LGBT rights, abortion, and affirmative action. My results run counter to several recent studies discounting the role of ideology on district court judges by strongly confirming the importance of such ideology, at least when salient constitutional rights are involved. Additionally, public opinion does appear to play a role in certain cases, a finding that suggests we should change the way we look at the role of district courts in our current political system, as well as opens up a whole new avenue of study for judicial scholars

Teaching Pre-Service Teachers How to Utilize Web 2.0 Platforms to Support the Educational Needs of Students with Disabilities in General Education Classrooms

It is without question that technology in schools is here to stay. Educators have always been interested in the extent to which technology can be used to transform education and enhance student learning; however, the degree to which it is utilized in teacher preparation programs for pre-service teachers in terms of Web 2.0 use with future students is under debate. Web 2.0 use can be a particularly interesting tool for teachers to use in differentiating instructional strategies for students with disabilities in inclusive settings. Therefore, it is worthwhile for teacher preparation programs to look at how Web 2.0 platforms can further support students in special education in such settings. The following study delineates data from a study of N = 82 pre-service teachers. Throughout the course of this study, all students were administered a pre- and post-survey that asked questions specific to current knowledge of Web 2.0 and the extent to which they thought it could be used in their future teaching practices. In addition, all students completed an assignment within their respective courses that embedded a specific Web 2.0 component. This assignment required pre-service teacher candidates to utilize the Pinterest platform to find and ‘pin’ educational materials specific to students with whom they will work with in future inclusive classrooms, relative to the various categories of special education