Project Description
We have been working to collect a defined universe of Supreme Court appearances off-the-bench for several years. (We have learned that the task is far more difficult than one might imagine.) We finally have that defined universe for 2000 - 2023 and are now ready to move onto the next phases of the project: (1) testing for data reliability; and (2) coding aspects of the appearances and of the Justices that are of theoretical interest to the research questions posed. Our two fundamental research questions include: (1) What effect do off-the-bench appearances have on public perceptions of the Supreme Court? and (2) Why do justices decide to make appearances off-the-bench?
Tasks and Responsibilites
Students have been an integral part of this project from its inception, helping refine the data collection form, the Google searches we would up needing to use to find the appearances, and collecting the actual data, and we look forward to continued mutually beneficial student participation in the project. In Spring 2026, we have planned a set of tasks for a set of students that vary depending on their facility with the project, including data cleaning, substantive coding (from our meta data, to measure the attention paid to the various appearances), and two aspects of the justices' behavior that have implications for their decisions over their appearances: whether they have published a book and so are on a book tour, and whether or not they are currently teaching a course at a law school. For our new student researchers, we will train them on coding and then have them work on a set of specially-designed reliability tasks.
Desired Qualifications
None Listed.