Joshua Boston
Biographic Data
| ID | 3876530 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Joshua Boston |
| GIVEN NAMES | Joshua |
| FAMILY NAME | Boston |
| SIGNATURE | BOSTON J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Bowling Green State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4670-8819 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 55 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2018 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Depictions of Partisan Bias at Oral Argument and Public Evaluations of the U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court relies on public goodwill for its authority, yet its decision-making processes are often hidden from the public eye. Media coverage of oral arguments in prominent cases provides an opportunity for Americans to assess how the Court carries out its procedures. Using a survey experiment conducted around the oral arguments in Trump v. Anderson , we show that depictions of partisan bias by the justices in their oral argument question…
The Prosecutor Paradox: Understanding the Public’s Low Knowledge About Chief Local Prosecutors
Most US chief local prosecutors are elected, presenting foundational accountability questions. Prosecutors have significant incumbency advantages and wield broad discretion over criminal charges and plea deals. Our study illuminates a knowledge deficit regarding prosecutors. National and state surveys show that most Americans do not know core prosecutorial functions and cannot correctly identify their prosecutors, likely stemming from poor inform…
The Curious Case of the Migrating Seat: Understanding the Role of Senate Norms in Confirming Judges on the U.S. Courts of Appeals
The confirmation of lower federal court judges heavily depends on senatorial courtesy and the blue slip. Prior work largely ignores state representation—a norm whereby each judgeship on the U.S. Courts of Appeals is assigned to a particular state in the Circuit. Given this norm, senators expect that the president will nominate someone from the same state as the departing circuit judge. However, presidents fail to follow this norm nearly a quarter…
The Political Court: Newspaper Coverage, Appointment Politics, and Public Support of the United States Supreme Court, 1980–2023
Public Approval of the Supreme Court and Its Implications for Legitimacy
In examining public evaluations of governing institutions, are job approval and legitimacy related? This question has dominated scholarship on Supreme Court legitimacy for decades. Conventional wisdom suggests that specific support (e.g., job approval) and diffuse support (e.g., legitimacy) are independent. Specific support captures short-term orientations based on policy alignment with the Court. Legitimacy is a long-term perspective reflecting …
Political Competition and Judicial Independence: How Courts Fill the Void When Legislatures Are Ineffective
What effect does political competition have in generating de facto judicial independence? We argue that competition in a legislature can drive increases in de facto judicial independence. Our game-theoretic model reveals that increased competition for seats impedes legislators’ ability to enact their platforms, regardless of government turnover probability, and increased legislative fractionalization also makes court intervention more likely. Uti…
The Electoral Connection in Court: How Sentencing Responds to Voter Preferences
Do elected judges tailor criminal sentences to the electorate’s ideology? Utilizing sentencing data from North Carolina’s Superior Courts—which transitioned from statewide to local elections in 1996—we study whether judges are obliging to voters’ preferences. We find some evidence of responsiveness: judges from liberal districts were more lenient, while those from moderately conservative districts assigned harsher sentences. Judges from increasin…
Your Honor’s Misdeeds: The Consequences of Judicial Scandal on Specific and Diffuse Support
Legitimacy is a bulwark for courts; even when judges engage in controversial or disagreeable behavior, the public tends to acquiesce. Recent studies identify several threats to the legitimacy of courts, including polarization and attacks by political elites. This article contributes to the scholarly discourse by exploring a previously unconsidered threat: scandal, or allegations of personal misbehavior. We argue that scandals can undermine confid…
Strategic Opinion Language on the US Courts of Appeals
What strategies do judges employ when they anticipate review? Constrained judges behave strategically by using particular instruments—like language complexity—when authoring opinions. Prior studies suggest that judges use complexity in anticipation of legislative hostility. Similarly, the threat of review and reversal may spur opinion complexity. This study examines variations in circuit court opinions resulting from precedent treatment and Supre…
Waiting to Vote in the 2016 Presidential Election: Evidence from a Multi-county Study
This paper is the result of a nationwide study of polling place dynamics in the 2016 presidential election. Research teams, recruited from local colleges and universities and located in twenty-eight election jurisdictions across the United States, observed and timed voters as they entered the queue at their respective polling places and then voted. We report results about four specific polling place operations and practices: the length of the che…
Presidential Rhetoric and Bureaucratic Enforcement: The Clinton Administration and Civil Rights
BILL CLINTON’S ENTIRE LIFE reflects a strong interest in civil rights. He learned the value of racial tolerance as a child in Arkansas, became a longtime supporter of civil rights policies to protect a wide variety of groups, and received solid political backing from racial minorities through the years.1 Understandably, then, Clinton is often portrayed as a leader on a number of civil rights issues during his two terms in the White House.2 As Ste…
Power Plus Persuasion: The Anatomy of Kennedy’s Housing Order
We examine the influence of various political actors on the substance and timing of presidential orders. Specifically, we analyze President John F. Kennedy's decision to issue E. O. 11063, which directed the federal bureaucracy to eliminate discrimination in the sale or lease of residential property overseen by the federal government. We show that this order did not result solely from Kennedy's policy preferences; rather, it was a product of pers…
The Dynamic Relationship between Personality Stability and Political Attitudes
Political scientists have increasingly documented correlations between personality traits, measured using the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) battery, and Americans' political attitudes and behaviors. Those correlations are often interpreted as giving causal agency to personality in shaping political outcomes. Such causal claims depend on two key assumptions: personality measurements (1) display stability over time and (2) predate political…
Pedagogical Value of Polling-Place Observation by Students
Good education requires student experiences that deliver lessons about practice as well as theory and that encourage students to work for the public good—especially in the operation of democratic institutions (Dewey 1923; Dewy 1938). We report on an evaluation of the pedagogical value of a research project involving 23 colleges and universities across the country. Faculty trained and supervised students who observed polling places in the 2016 Gen…
Waiting to Vote in the 2016 Presidential Election: Evidence from a Multi-county Study
This paper is the result of a nationwide study of polling place dynamics in the 2016 presidential election. Research teams, recruited from local colleges and universities and located in twenty-eight election jurisdictions across the United States, observed and timed voters as they entered the queue at their respective polling places and then voted. We report results about four specific polling place operations and practices: the length of the che…
Public Approval of the Supreme Court and Its Implications for Legitimacy
In examining public evaluations of governing institutions, are job approval and legitimacy related? This question has dominated scholarship on Supreme Court legitimacy for decades. Conventional wisdom suggests that specific support (e.g., job approval) and diffuse support (e.g., legitimacy) are independent. Specific support captures short-term orientations based on policy alignment with the Court. Legitimacy is a long-term perspective reflecting …
The Dynamic Relationship between Personality Stability and Political Attitudes
Political scientists have increasingly documented correlations between personality traits, measured using the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) battery, and Americans' political attitudes and behaviors. Those correlations are often interpreted as giving causal agency to personality in shaping political outcomes. Such causal claims depend on two key assumptions: personality measurements (1) display stability over time and (2) predate political…
Your Honor’s Misdeeds: The Consequences of Judicial Scandal on Specific and Diffuse Support
Legitimacy is a bulwark for courts; even when judges engage in controversial or disagreeable behavior, the public tends to acquiesce. Recent studies identify several threats to the legitimacy of courts, including polarization and attacks by political elites. This article contributes to the scholarly discourse by exploring a previously unconsidered threat: scandal, or allegations of personal misbehavior. We argue that scandals can undermine confid…
The Political Court: Newspaper Coverage, Appointment Politics, and Public Support of the United States Supreme Court, 1980–2023
Strategic Opinion Language on the US Courts of Appeals
What strategies do judges employ when they anticipate review? Constrained judges behave strategically by using particular instruments—like language complexity—when authoring opinions. Prior studies suggest that judges use complexity in anticipation of legislative hostility. Similarly, the threat of review and reversal may spur opinion complexity. This study examines variations in circuit court opinions resulting from precedent treatment and Supre…
Pedagogical Value of Polling-Place Observation by Students
Good education requires student experiences that deliver lessons about practice as well as theory and that encourage students to work for the public good—especially in the operation of democratic institutions (Dewey 1923; Dewy 1938). We report on an evaluation of the pedagogical value of a research project involving 23 colleges and universities across the country. Faculty trained and supervised students who observed polling places in the 2016 Gen…
The Dynamic Relationship between Personality Stability and Political Attitudes
Political scientists have increasingly documented correlations between personality traits, measured using the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) battery, and Americans' political attitudes and behaviors. Those correlations are often interpreted as giving causal agency to personality in shaping political outcomes. Such causal claims depend on two key assumptions: personality measurements (1) display stability over time and (2) predate political…
Pedagogical Value of Polling-Place Observation by Students
Good education requires student experiences that deliver lessons about practice as well as theory and that encourage students to work for the public good—especially in the operation of democratic institutions (Dewey 1923; Dewy 1938). We report on an evaluation of the pedagogical value of a research project involving 23 colleges and universities across the country. Faculty trained and supervised students who observed polling places in the 2016 Gen…
Presidential Rhetoric and Bureaucratic Enforcement: The Clinton Administration and Civil Rights
BILL CLINTON’S ENTIRE LIFE reflects a strong interest in civil rights. He learned the value of racial tolerance as a child in Arkansas, became a longtime supporter of civil rights policies to protect a wide variety of groups, and received solid political backing from racial minorities through the years.1 Understandably, then, Clinton is often portrayed as a leader on a number of civil rights issues during his two terms in the White House.2 As Ste…
Power Plus Persuasion: The Anatomy of Kennedy’s Housing Order
We examine the influence of various political actors on the substance and timing of presidential orders. Specifically, we analyze President John F. Kennedy's decision to issue E. O. 11063, which directed the federal bureaucracy to eliminate discrimination in the sale or lease of residential property overseen by the federal government. We show that this order did not result solely from Kennedy's policy preferences; rather, it was a product of pers…
Strategic Opinion Language on the US Courts of Appeals
What strategies do judges employ when they anticipate review? Constrained judges behave strategically by using particular instruments—like language complexity—when authoring opinions. Prior studies suggest that judges use complexity in anticipation of legislative hostility. Similarly, the threat of review and reversal may spur opinion complexity. This study examines variations in circuit court opinions resulting from precedent treatment and Supre…
Waiting to Vote in the 2016 Presidential Election: Evidence from a Multi-county Study
This paper is the result of a nationwide study of polling place dynamics in the 2016 presidential election. Research teams, recruited from local colleges and universities and located in twenty-eight election jurisdictions across the United States, observed and timed voters as they entered the queue at their respective polling places and then voted. We report results about four specific polling place operations and practices: the length of the che…
Political Competition and Judicial Independence: How Courts Fill the Void When Legislatures Are Ineffective
What effect does political competition have in generating de facto judicial independence? We argue that competition in a legislature can drive increases in de facto judicial independence. Our game-theoretic model reveals that increased competition for seats impedes legislators’ ability to enact their platforms, regardless of government turnover probability, and increased legislative fractionalization also makes court intervention more likely. Uti…
The Electoral Connection in Court: How Sentencing Responds to Voter Preferences
Do elected judges tailor criminal sentences to the electorate’s ideology? Utilizing sentencing data from North Carolina’s Superior Courts—which transitioned from statewide to local elections in 1996—we study whether judges are obliging to voters’ preferences. We find some evidence of responsiveness: judges from liberal districts were more lenient, while those from moderately conservative districts assigned harsher sentences. Judges from increasin…
Your Honor’s Misdeeds: The Consequences of Judicial Scandal on Specific and Diffuse Support
Legitimacy is a bulwark for courts; even when judges engage in controversial or disagreeable behavior, the public tends to acquiesce. Recent studies identify several threats to the legitimacy of courts, including polarization and attacks by political elites. This article contributes to the scholarly discourse by exploring a previously unconsidered threat: scandal, or allegations of personal misbehavior. We argue that scandals can undermine confid…
Public Approval of the Supreme Court and Its Implications for Legitimacy
In examining public evaluations of governing institutions, are job approval and legitimacy related? This question has dominated scholarship on Supreme Court legitimacy for decades. Conventional wisdom suggests that specific support (e.g., job approval) and diffuse support (e.g., legitimacy) are independent. Specific support captures short-term orientations based on policy alignment with the Court. Legitimacy is a long-term perspective reflecting …
The Curious Case of the Migrating Seat: Understanding the Role of Senate Norms in Confirming Judges on the U.S. Courts of Appeals
The confirmation of lower federal court judges heavily depends on senatorial courtesy and the blue slip. Prior work largely ignores state representation—a norm whereby each judgeship on the U.S. Courts of Appeals is assigned to a particular state in the Circuit. Given this norm, senators expect that the president will nominate someone from the same state as the departing circuit judge. However, presidents fail to follow this norm nearly a quarter…
The Political Court: Newspaper Coverage, Appointment Politics, and Public Support of the United States Supreme Court, 1980–2023
Depictions of Partisan Bias at Oral Argument and Public Evaluations of the U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court relies on public goodwill for its authority, yet its decision-making processes are often hidden from the public eye. Media coverage of oral arguments in prominent cases provides an opportunity for Americans to assess how the Court carries out its procedures. Using a survey experiment conducted around the oral arguments in Trump v. Anderson , we show that depictions of partisan bias by the justices in their oral argument question…
The Prosecutor Paradox: Understanding the Public’s Low Knowledge About Chief Local Prosecutors
Most US chief local prosecutors are elected, presenting foundational accountability questions. Prosecutors have significant incumbency advantages and wield broad discretion over criminal charges and plea deals. Our study illuminates a knowledge deficit regarding prosecutors. National and state surveys show that most Americans do not know core prosecutorial functions and cannot correctly identify their prosecutors, likely stemming from poor inform…
Political science (11 works) · Politics (10 works) · Judicial and Constitutional Studies (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Legal and Constitutional Studies (6 works) · Public Administration (6 works) · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems (5 works) · Public Administration (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works)