Random Chance or Loaded Dice: The Politics of Judicial Designation

[Excerpt] “In the 1950s and 1960s, the southern states struggled to respond to the civil rights decisions being issued by the U.S. Supreme Court as well as the new civil rights laws being passed by Congress. The judicial battleground for this perfect storm of evasion and massive resistance was found in the “old” Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which encompassed the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. In the “old” Fifth Circuit, a minority of liberal appeals court judges—sympathetic to the civil rights movement—used all legal and administrative power at their disposal to make sure that the federal district and appeals courts were complying with the U.S. Supreme Court’s mandate in Brown v. Board of Education. In their ground-breaking book A Court Divided: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Politics of Judicial Reform, political scientists Deborah J. Barrow and Thomas G. Walker carefully examined the political behavior of these aforementioned liberal appeals court judges and found evidence that Elbert Parr Tuttle, the Fifth Circuit’s chief judge from 1960 to 1967, was manipulating, or “gerrymandering,” the assignment of appeals court judges to both three-judge district court panels, and three-judge appellate court panels to guarantee that the panels had at least two liberal judges who would enforce the Supreme Court’s desegregation rulings.

Formation of viable cell fragments by treatment with colchicine

Time-lapse cinematography of human fibroblasts revealed that mitotic cells separated into numerous cell fragments containing varying amounts of chromatin and cytoplasm when treated with colchicine. As cell fragments were very loosely attached to the surface of the culture vessel during their formation, they could be easily detached like mitotic cells by gently shaking the vessel and thus separated from normal interphase cells. Fragments obtained by this procedure were able to exclude trypan blue indicating, therefore, an intact cell membrane. When placed into Petri dishes many of them attached to and even spread out on the surface. Five hours later the majority of the attached fragments incorporated [3H]leucine. Time-lapse films showed that fragments were able to extend and retract pseudopodia at least for several hours after their formation. Although the fragments degenerated within a few days, in the present experiments the possibility was not excluded that fragments which had lost only a very small amount of chromatin and cytoplasm survived for longer periods of time. The observations clearly indicate viability of many newly formed fragments

Seafood Safety and Trade

Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade,

Molecular Beam Measurement of the Hyperfine Structure of 133Cs19F

The magnitudes and signs of the hyperfine interaction constants for 133Cs19F in the J = 1, v = 0, 1, 2 states have been measured with a molecular beam electric resonance spectrometer. The results for v = 0 are: eQ1q1 = 1.2370(13) MHz, c1 = 0.70(7)kHz, c2 = 15.1(6)kHz, c3 = 0.92(12)kHz, c4 = 0.61(10)kHz. The numbers in parentheses are uncertainties in units of the last digit given. eQ1q1 is the quadrupole coupling constant for the cesium nucleus, c1 and c2 are the spin‐rotation coupling constants for the cesium and fluorine nuclei, respectively, and c3 and c4 are the coupling constants for the tensor and scalar parts of the nuclear spin—spin interaction. These constants are obtained from the radio‐frequency spectrum of CsF taken under veryweak‐field conditions (Edc = 1.5 V/cm; H<0.05 Oe); some previously ignored contributions of the fluorine spin—rotation interaction and the spin—spin interaction are clearly evident. The observed variation in eQ1q1 with vibrational state shows only qualitative agreement with theory. An appendix gives compact expressions for the very‐weak‐field hfs energy levels of a 1Σ molecule in which only one nucleus has a quadrupole moment.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70928/2/JCPSA6-47-10-3896-1.pd

Law Clerk Influence on Supreme Court Decision Making: An Empirical Assessment

Here, we undertake the first effort at assessing the existence and extent of law clerk influence in the U.S. Supreme Court. Drawing upon original survey data on the political ideology of 532 former law clerks, we evaluate the extent to which both the Justice\u27s personal policy preferences and those of his or her law clerks exert an independent influence on the Justice\u27s votes. While our results are preliminary, they nonetheless support the contention that--over and above selection effects due to Justices choosing like-minded clerks--clerks\u27 ideological predilections exert an additional, and not insubstantial, influence on the Justices\u27 decisions on the merits. In Part II, we first present a short overview of the evolution of the rules and norms surrounding the hiring and utilization of law clerks at the United States Supreme Court, paying special attention to the job duties of clerks on the current Supreme Court. Drawing upon principal-agent theory, in Section II.B, we then discuss the dynamics between law clerks and Justices and the conditions that must be present before law clerks can wield influence. Finally, in Parts III, IV, and V, we propose and empirically test a model of Supreme Court decision making that includes the preferences of law clerks as a separate independent variable

Rabl's model of the interphase chromosome arrangement tested in Chinise hamster cells by premature chromosome condensation and laser-UV-microbeam experiments

In 1885 Carl Rabl published his theory on the internal structure of the interphase nucleus. We have tested two predictions of this theory in fibroblasts grown in vitro from a female Chinese hamster, namely (1) the Rabl-orientation of interphase chromosomes and (2) the stability of the chromosome arrangement established in telophase throughout the subsequent interphase. Tests were carried out by premature chromosome condensation (PCC) and laser-UV-microirradiation of the interphase nucleus. Rabl-orientation of chromosomes was observed in G1 PCCs and G2 PCCs. The cell nucleus was microirradiated in G1 at one or two sites and pulse-labelled with 3H-thymidine for 2h. Cells were processed for autoradiography either immediately thereafter or after an additional growth period of 10 to 60h. Autoradiographs show unscheduled DNA synthesis (UDS) in the microirradiated nuclear part(s). The distribution of labelled chromatin was evaluated in autoradiographs from 1035 cells after microirradiation of a single nuclear site and from 253 cells after microirradiation of two sites. After 30 to 60h postincubation the labelled regions still appeared coherent although the average size of the labelled nuclear area fr increased from 14.2% (0h) to 26.5% (60h). The relative distance dr, i.e. the distance between two microirradiated sites divided by the diameter of the whole nucleus, showed a slight decrease with increasing incubation time. Nine metaphase figures were evaluated for UDS-label after microirradiation of the nuclear edge in G1. An average of 4.3 chromosomes per cell were labelled. Several chromosomes showed joint labelling of both distal chromosome arms including the telomeres, while the centromeric region was free from label. This label pattern is interpreted as the result of a V-shaped orientation of these particular chromosomes in the interphase nucleus with their telomeric regions close to each other at the nuclear edge. Our data support the tested predictions of the Rabl-model. Small time-dependent changes of the nuclear space occupied by single chromosomes and of their relative positions in the interphase nucleus seem possible, while the territorial organization of interphase chromosomes and their arrangement in general is maintained during interphase. The present limitations of the methods used for this study are discussed

Hyperfine Structure of Sodium Iodide

A molecular‐beam electric resonance spectrometer has been used to study radio‐frequency transitions between the hyperfine‐structure sublevels of the J  =  1J=1 state of 23Na127I. Transitions for the first four vibrational states have been observed in very weak electric field and near zero magnetic field. The intramolecular interaction constants obtained for the ground vibrational state are: (eqQ)sodium  =  − 4073.0(10)kHz;(eqQ)iodine  =  − 262140.7(10)kHz;csodium  =  0.74(8)kHz;ciodine  =  0.28(4)kHz;c3  =  0.17(8)kHz,c4  =  − 027(8)kHz(eqQ)sodium=−4073.0(10)kHz;(eqQ)iodine=−262140.7(10)kHz;csodium=0.74(8)kHz;ciodine=0.28(4)kHz;c3=0.17(8)kHz,c4=−027(8)kHz. The numbers in parentheses are the uncertainties in units of the last quoted digit. Constants for the excited vibrational states have been determined with less precision because fewer transitions were observed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/70677/2/JCPSA6-50-9-3748-1.pd