Supreme Court Power Play: Assessing the Appropriate Role of the Senate in the Confirmation Process

The Bush Administration will likely have the opportunity to make a number of appointments to the Supreme Court; however, such nominations may lead to contentious confirmation hearings in the Senate. When such an appointment opportunity does present itself, questions are bound to arise concerning the appropriate role of the United States Senate in the confirmation of Supreme Court nominees under the advice and consent provisions of article H of the Unite States Constitution. Disputes over the Senate \u27s proper role and scope of inquiry seem to emerge whenever a nominee has faced the confirmation process and have been a timeworn subject of legal debate. In this Article, we assess the proposition that the Senate should have an active role in the confirmation process, which includes investigation into a nominee\u27s ideological beliefs and constitutional philosophy. We begin by examining the background of the Constitution\u27s advice and consent phraseology and consider early applications of the confirmation process by senators during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We then discuss the struggle for judicial selection power between the Senate and the President and conclude by suggesting the need for an active Senate response to executive nominations

The Intersection of Judicial Attitudes and Litigant Selection Theories: Explaining U.S. Supreme Court Decision-Making

This Essay tests an integrated model of decision-making on case outcomes in the United States Supreme Court and employs an interactive specification to assess the influence of judicial ideology on Supreme Court outcomes, simultaneously accounting for litigants’ and justices’ case selection (sorting) behavior

For the Times they Are A-Changin\u27: Explaining Voting Patters of U.S. Supreme Court Justices through Identification of Micro-Publics

In assessing how social forces may shape U.S. Supreme Court Justices’ decision-making it has been presumed that there is a singular public opinion and that this opinion affects each individual Justice in largely the same fashion. We suggest that it is more likely the case that Justices’ world views are informed and shaped by a myriad of social concerns and group identities upon which the Justices structure and process their experiences and develop and refine their personal schemas. While some have already begun to question the proposition of a monolithic public opinion influence on judicial behavior and have begun to think carefully about what we term the “micro-publics” that may inform Supreme Court Justices’ decision-making, the more tangible questions of whether Justices respond to publics that are distinguishable from broad-based national public opinion and what those micro-publics might be remain largely unanswered. Our study focuses on the potential influence of localized and personal micro-publics and the possibility of partisan-based elite influence on judicial behavior. We test our hypotheses by analyzing the voting record of Supreme Court Justices on civil liberties cases from 1977 to 2003 and find encouraging initial support for our theory

The Conditional Effects of Ideology and Institutional Structure on Judicial Voting in State Supreme Courts

Two enormously influential perspectives on courts offer fundamentally different predictions about court outcomes and the effects of judge ideology on those outcomes. Well-known to political scientists studying courts, the ideological voting (IV) literature argues that judge ideology is a strong predictor of court outcomes and that those outcomes should be proximate to the policy preferences of courts. Less known to political scientists but highly influential, the law and economics perspective (LE) focuses on settlement behavior of litigants who try to minimize costs and thus estimate likely outcomes in court, and settle simpler cases pre-trial. In this case selection process litigants respond to cues that signal likely outcomes with the result that only complex, less predictable cases make it to trial leading to win-rates that coalesce at fifty percent for plaintiffs or defendants. From this perspective, litigant strategies cancel out the effects of judge ideology and court outcomes do not correspond to judges’ ideological preferences. We reconcile these perspectives by examining tort cases in state supreme courts from 1995 through 1998. The contrasting perspectives stem from the fundamental institutional processes upon which each perspective is based. The LE perspective dominates in states without lower appellate courts (LAC) where process of appeal in these state supreme courts is litigant-driven, with win-rates hovering at fifty percent and deviations from that norm accounted for by forces influencing litigant uncertainty. The ideological voting predicted by the IV literature occurs primarily in the context of state supreme court strategic reversals of LAC decisions---a process commensurate that operating with the U.S. Supreme Court. When it comes to judicial outcomes, institutional structure is a critical element shaping the influence of litigant strategy and judge ideology

Kelvin Probe Studies of Cesium Telluride Photocathode for AWA Photoinjector

Cesium telluride is an important photocathode as an electron source for particle accelerators. It has a relatively high quantum efficiency (>1%), is sufficiently robust in a photoinjector, and has a long lifetime. This photocathode is grown in-house for a new Argonne Wakefield Accelerator (AWA) beamline to produce high charge per bunch (~50 nC) in a long bunch train. Here, we present a study of the work function of cesium telluride photocathode using the Kelvin Probe technique. The study includes an investigation of the correlation between the quantum efficiency and the work function, the effect of photocathode aging, the effect of UV exposure on the work function, and the evolution of the work function during and after photocathode rejuvenation via heating.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Cytoskeletal Components of an Invasion Machine—The Apical Complex of Toxoplasma gondii

The apical complex of Toxoplasma gondii is widely believed to serve essential functions in both invasion of its host cells (including human cells), and in replication of the parasite. The understanding of apical complex function, the basis for its novel structure, and the mechanism for its motility are greatly impeded by lack of knowledge of its molecular composition. We have partially purified the conoid/apical complex, identified ~200 proteins that represent 70% of its cytoskeletal protein components, characterized seven novel proteins, and determined the sequence of recruitment of five of these proteins into the cytoskeleton during cell division. Our results provide new markers for the different subcompartments within the apical complex, and revealed previously unknown cellular compartments, which facilitate our understanding of how the invasion machinery is built. Surprisingly, the extreme apical and extreme basal structures of this highly polarized cell originate in the same location and at the same time very early during parasite replication

The Use of Genetics for the Management of a Recovering Population: Temporal Assessment of Migratory Peregrine Falcons in North America

Background: Our ability to monitor populations or species that were once threatened or endangered and in the process of recovery is enhanced by using genetic methods to assess overall population stability and size over time. This can be accomplished most directly by obtaining genetic measures from temporally-spaced samples that reflect the overall stability of the population as given by changes in genetic diversity levels (allelic richness and heterozygosity), degree of population differentiation (FST and DEST), and effective population size (Ne). The primary goal of any recovery effort is to produce a longterm self-sustaining population, and these genetic measures provide a metric by which we can gauge our progress and help make important management decisions. Methodology/Principal Findings: The peregrine falcon in North America (Falco peregrinus tundrius and anatum) was delisted in 1994 and 1999, respectively, and its abundance will be monitored by the species Recovery Team every three years until 2015. Although the United States Fish and Wildlife Service makes a distinction between tundrius and anatum subspecies, our genetic results based on eleven microsatellite loci suggest limited differentiation that can be attributed to an isolation by distance relationship and warrant no delineation of these two subspecies in its northern latitudinal distribution from Alaska through Canada into Greenland. Using temporal samples collected at Padre Island, Texas during migration (seven temporal time periods between 1985–2007), no significant differences in genetic diversity or significant population differentiation in allele frequencies between time periods were observed and were indistinguishable from those obtained from tundrius/anatum breeding locations throughout their northern distribution. Estimates of harmonic mean Ne were variable and imprecise, but always greater than 500 when employing multiple temporal genetic methods. Conclusions/Significance: These results, including those from simulations to assess the power of each method to estimate Ne, suggest a stable or growing population, which is consistent with ongoing field-based monitoring surveys. Therefore, historic and continuing efforts to prevent the extinction of the peregrine falcon in North America appear successful with no indication of recent decline, at least from the northern latitude range-wide perspective. The results also further highlight the importance of archiving samples and their use for continual assessment of population recovery and long-term viability