In their seminal article on the historical rise of dissent activity, Walker, Dixon, and Epstein (1988) consider a number of competing hypotheses, such as the transition to a discretionary docket, changes in caseload levels, and alteration of the Courtﾒs membership, before ultimately...

At the core of the debate on how judges should be selected is the issue whether the judiciary should be accountable or independent. Among the various selection systems in the states, including partisan elections, non-partisan elections, gubernatorial and legislative appointment, and the...

This study seeks to understand longstanding structural changes in the executive-senate relationships that govern the judicial appointment process. Utilizing a new source of data that comprises District Court appointments from 1901 through 2006, the analysis models the duration of selection and...

This study invokes the common space scores of executives and senators to generate a number of alternative preference point positions for U.S. District Court judges (1901-2006). Tests of these continuous measures against a null case fact specification suggest that the legal model always proves an...

Scholars have been intrigued by the abrupt change in the rate of nonconsensual opinions that the Supreme Court has published over time, which substantially increased beginning with the battles concerning the court's New Deal transition in the 1930s. Notwithstanding, none of the prior studies on...