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2020 SCOTUS DOCKET ANALYSIS METHODOLOGY

 
 
 

Overview

The purpose of this data analysis is to examine the Supreme Court’s ideological choices in the cases they take. The hypothesis is that the justices take cases with a greater potential to yield conservative rather than liberal results. The data in the first part of this project test this hypothesis over the 2020 Supreme Court Term. To do this, 2020 Term cases were coded along several dimensions.

Variables in the dataset are as follows: case name, docket number, the question presented (gathered from the case docket), the issue area of the case, the potential ideology of the case (based on the question, what the petition asks for, and the potential outcomes in the case), the decision on the merits, text from the petition that describes the decision of the court below, and notes on the outcome of the decision.

Variables

  1. The question presented in the case indicates whether the petitioner sought a conservative or liberal outcome.

  2. Issue area helps define the ideological spectrum for the case. Classic liberal and conserva- tive definitions are used for ideology depending on the left/right dimension of social, economic, and political interests.

  3. Potential ideology is the focal variable for this dataset. It looks at whether the Court took a case with a greater potential to move the law conservatively or liberally or whether the potential ideological shift was neutral or was unable to be determined using the coding parameters.

  4. Lower court decision indicates the status quo in the case or the state of the law prior to the Supreme Court taking a case.

  5. Decision on the merits refers to whether the court affirmed, reversed, or vacated the decision below, indicating how the Court decided on the lower court’s decision.

  6. Text from the petition indicates what the petitioner is seeking in the case. This helps determine the ideological direction the petitioner hopes the Court moves the law in the case.

  7. Outcome concerns how the Court ruled in the case based on the decision on the merits, and is derived from the text of the Supreme Court’s decision.