Identifying the Median Justice on the Supreme Court through Multidimensional Scaling: Analysis of “Natural Courts” 1953–1991
Public ChoicePublished 1 July 2002
Bernard Grofman, Timothy J. Brazill
Citations98
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score0.85
SNIP1.36
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Abstract
Given the fundamental unidimensionality in thedata on Supreme Court voting patterns1951–1993 we observe, we are able todetermine the identity of ``median'' membersof each court in a fashion that does notrequire subjective coding of the extent towhich particular cases reflect left-rightissues. Also, while the exact numericalvalues of MDS-obtained locations cannot becompared across different ``natural courts'',the positions of Supreme Court justicesacross their careers relative to the courtson which they served can be traced. Ourdata show overwhelming quantified evidenceof a very strong rightward drift (relativeto our MDS defined dimensions) in thecomposition of the court as we move fromthe Warren Court to the Burger Court, andagain as we move from the Burger Court tothe Rehnquist Court.
Keywords
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