Anolis armouri

Number of Pages: 3Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Set and Drift: Naval Force in the New Century

It is 1890.1 The United States is flexing its broad, young shoulders, strengthened by an infusion of new immigrants, new technologies, and by American political leadership that represents the growing nation’s outward-looking perspective. The United States desires to play on the world stage along with the great imperial nations. However, naval leadership has a different viewpoint. It is content with its small, coastal, commerce-raiding, Jeffersonian fleet. Then along comes a reticent, unlikable naval captain of middling reputation who captures the nation’s imagination with his plan for a navy that will do battle at sea upon the great world stage

Neil Gorsuch and the Ginsburg Rules

Supreme Court nominees testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee frequently invoke the so-called “Ginsburg Rule” to justify not answering questions posed to them. According to this “rule,” nominees during their testimony must avoid signaling their preferences about previously decided Supreme Court cases or constitutional issues. Using empirical data on every question asked and answered at every hearing from 1939–2017, we explore this “rule,” and its attribution to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We demonstrate three things. First, the Ginsburg Rule is poorly named, given that the practice of claiming a privilege to not respond to certain types of questions predates the Ginsburg nomination by decades. Second, the Ginsburg Rule really is two rules: one governing when nominees should not provide direct responses to certain types of questions, and a second governing when they should. Third, we show that Neil Gorsuch, despite his insistence to the contrary, did not really follow the example set by Justice Ginsburg. Instead, unlike Justice Ginsburg and most other recent nominees, Gorsuch regularly refused to articulate firm positions on even our most widely accepted constitutional issues and cases. In doing, we argue, Gorsuch’s practice risks diminishing one important way in which we as a society use Supreme Court confirmation hearings to debate and endorse constitutional change

An Evaluation of Fee Hunting as a Technique to Capitalize on the Value of Deer in Northern New York

To research selected aspects of deer resource dynamics that have been identified as key components in the redefinition and/or implementation of deer management strategic plans and programs in northern New York

Why not limit Neil Gorsuch — and all Supreme Court justices — to 18-year terms?

Legal scholars and political scientists increasingly question whether life tenure remains a good idea for Supreme Court justices. While scholars disagree about the exact numbers, our Supreme Court justices are serving longer and longer terms; presidents have incentives to choose younger and younger nominees; and the justices themselves appear to delay retirement in the hope of having an ideologically compatible president select their replacements. Moreover, the confirmation process has become increasingly contentious, culminating last year in Senate Republicans refusing to even grant a hearing to President Barack Obama’s nominee, Merrick Garland. As a result, many scholars propose a shift to staggered 18-year terms. What are the pros and cons of such a change? This article breaks down the positives and negatives of term limits for Supreme Court justices

The Institutionalization of Supreme Court Confirmation Hearings

This article uses an original database of confirmation hearing dialogue to examine how the Senate Judiciary Committee’s role in Supreme Court confirmations has changed over time, with particular attention paid to the 1939–2010 era. During this period, several notable developments took place, including a rise in the number of hearing comments, increased attention to nominees’ views of judicial decisions, an expansion of the scope of issues addressed, and the equalization of questioning between majority and minority party senators. We demonstrate that these changes were shaped by both endogenous and exogenous factors to promote the legitimization of the Judiciary Committee’s role in the confirmation process and to foster the instrumental goals of senators. This research contributes to our understanding of the development of political institutions, interbranch interactions, and how institutional change affects the behavior of legal and political actors

Interruptions at Supreme Court confirmation hearings have been rising since the 1980s

As scholars of the confirmation process, we aim to measure what is measurable, in the hope that data can inform our more subjective perceptions of politics. And one measurable feature of Kavanaugh’s testimony is the striking number of times he interrupted the senators to challenge their comments or force his own point. Here, the historical record can shed some light. This article reviews the history of interruptions during Supreme Court confirmation hearings from 1939 to 2010

The ‘Ginsburg Rule’ Is Not an Excuse to Avoid Answering the Senate’s Questions

An op-ed by Lori Ringhand and Paul M. Collins Jr. on Supreme Court nominees\u27 unwillingness to provide answers on cases under the wrongly named Ginsburg Rule. Nominees since the 1930s have balanced the competing needs of the Senate and the Judiciary by claiming a privilege to not opine on currently contested cases while freely offering their opinion about cases that used to be controversial but are no longer

Characterization of the Effects of Radiation on Skeletal and Smooth Muscle Cells

Muscular atrophy is a serious issue for extended spaceflight. Understanding and preventing the role of ionizing radiation in skeletal muscle loss would preserve the strength and endurance of astronauts and enable longer duration space travel and exploration. Irradiation was performed in the USU material physics group\u27s Space Suvivability Test Chamber. C2C12 and CRL-1999 cells were exposed to dosages ranging from 0.5 - 36.8 Gy. Cell viability and growth rate were measured immediately following irradiation