S Sidney Ulmer
Biographic Data
| ID | 5451684 |
|---|---|
| NAME | S Sidney Ulmer |
| GIVEN NAMES | S Sidney |
| FAMILY NAME | Ulmer |
| SIGNATURE | ULMER S S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Kentucky |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 50 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 345 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 50 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1957 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Are Social Background Models Time-Bound
In this research note I seek to determine whether a significantly predicting social background model for analyzing the votes of Supreme Court justices is time-bound. I argue that an affirmative result poses serious questions for past uses of such models, none of which has controlled for the possibility that time is a confounding variable. A model that significantly predicted the votes of the justices in the Court's 1903-1968 terms was constructed…
Governmental Litigants, Underdogs, and Civil Liberties in the Supreme Court: 1903-1968 Terms
From an assortment of partial theories found in the literature, it was hypothesized that governmental litigants were more likely than nongovernmental litigants to be favored in cases decided by the United States Supreme Court. This proposition was tested for state and federal governments in civil liberty cases involving "underdogs" in the Court's 1903-1968 terms. The hypothesis was not supported for state and federal governments separately or for…
The Supreme Court's Certiorari Decisions: Conflict as a Predictive Variable
In the period from 1947 to 1976, the United States Supreme Court has denied certiorari in more than half the cases involving conflict with Supreme Court precedent or intercircuit conflict. In both instances, the denial rate has been higher in the Burger Court than in the Vinson and Warren Courts and denial has been greater for intercircuit conflict cases than for cases in which the ruling in the lower court was in conflict with one or more Suprem…
Conflict with Supreme Court Precedent and the Granting of Plenary Review
This paper presents preliminary findings from a study designed to fill a gap in political scientists' knowledge about the extent to which the Supreme Court grants or denies plenary review when conflict with one or more of its precedents is claimed. The findings are that the presence of conflict promoted the granting of review between 1961 and 1976, including the Warren Court terms (1961-68), even in the face of controls for litigant status, civil…
Supreme Court Appointments as a Poisson Distribution
When Jimmy Carter stepped down as president on January 20, 1981, he carried with him at least one unique distinction: he is the only president serving four or more years who failed to make a single appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Since four-year presidents have appointed as many as five justices in a term and have averaged approximately two such appointments,' the Carter experience may be seen by some as anomalous. This is particularly tru…
Supreme Court Opinions: Getting the Message
The true significance of policy articulations by appellate courts lies in the behavioral responses of relevant parties below. Actions consistent with the intent of appellate sources is dependant on effective communication between message source and message recipient. Limiting focus to the U.S. Supreme Court as an appellate source, two measures of effective communications are developed. These measures incorporate two dimensions of comprehension di…
Parabolic Support of Civil Liberty Claims: The Case of William O. Douglas
Researching the Supreme Court in a Democratic Pluralist System: Some Thoughts on New Directions
The political processes which invite research and the investment of associated resources are those identified as signiscant by the political theories to which we give credence. Though Democratic Pluralism is the most popular explanation of the political system in the United States, its ability to explain Supreme Court behavior cannot be evaluated, for observation of the processes by which Court agendas for national policy making purposes are cons…
Selecting Cases for Supreme Court Review: An Underdog Model
In making review decisions, Supreme Court justices are predisposed to support underdogs and upperdogs. disproportionately but, also, are motivated to hide any "bias" that may be at work in determining votes. In balancing these two values, justices may be expected to vote their "bias" more frequently (1) when that vote will determine outcome, and (2) when the "bias" will be harder to detect. The latter goal may be served by voting the "bias" more …
Human Jurisprudence: Public Law as Political Science. Glendon A. Schubert
The Supreme Court and Critical Elections: A Dissent
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
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From "Academic Stuff" to Judicial Behavior: A Continuing Search for Identity The Impact of Supreme Court Decisions . By Theodore L. Becker Comparative Judicial Politics . By Theodore L. Becker Supreme…
Bricolage and Assorted Thoughts on Working in the Papers of Supreme Court Justices
Social Background as an Indicator to the Votes of Supreme Court Justices in Criminal Cases: 1947-1956 Terms
Supreme Court Justices as Strict and Not-so-Strict Constructionists: Some Implications
In making his televised announcement on the nominations of Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist for seats on the Supreme Court, Richard Nixon observed that he was merely fulfilling a campaign promise. For, he said: "... during my campaign for the Presidency, I pledged to nominate to the Supreme Court individuals who shared my judicial philosophy which is basically a conservative philosophy. ... As a judicial conservative, I believe some Court decis…
"The Decision to Grant Certiorari as an Indicator to Decision "On the Merits
The Decision to Grant or Deny Certiorari: Further Consideration of Cue Theory
Political scientists now agree that the Supreme Court is a major institutional policy maker in the American political system. But they have done little to relate that conclusion to democratic theory. Nor have they bothered to draw the implications for structural reform of the Court that seem to flow from such a relationship. Specifically, we have been less concerned with holding Supreme Court justices accountable to those they govern than seeing …
Earl Warren and the Brown Decision
Dissent Behavior and the Social Background of Supreme Court Justices
Law Without Sanctions: Order in Primitive Societies and the World Community
Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787
James Madison s record of the Constitutional Convention traces day by day the debates held from May to September 1787 and presents the only complete picture we have of the strategy, interests, and ideas of the founding fathers at the Convention itself. In this indispensable primary document, Madison not only provides detailed insights into one of the great events of our history, but clearly sets forth his own position on such issues as the balanc…
The Right to Vote: Politics and the Passage of the Fifteenth Amendment
The Judicial Mind: The Attitudes and Ideologies of Supreme Court Justices 1946-1963
The Accidental Century
The Supreme Court's Certiorari Decisions: Conflict as a Predictive Variable
In the period from 1947 to 1976, the United States Supreme Court has denied certiorari in more than half the cases involving conflict with Supreme Court precedent or intercircuit conflict. In both instances, the denial rate has been higher in the Burger Court than in the Vinson and Warren Courts and denial has been greater for intercircuit conflict cases than for cases in which the ruling in the lower court was in conflict with one or more Suprem…
Social Background as an Indicator to the Votes of Supreme Court Justices in Criminal Cases: 1947-1956 Terms
Dissent Behavior and the Social Background of Supreme Court Justices
"The Decision to Grant Certiorari as an Indicator to Decision "On the Merits
Selecting Cases for Supreme Court Review: An Underdog Model
In making review decisions, Supreme Court justices are predisposed to support underdogs and upperdogs. disproportionately but, also, are motivated to hide any "bias" that may be at work in determining votes. In balancing these two values, justices may be expected to vote their "bias" more frequently (1) when that vote will determine outcome, and (2) when the "bias" will be harder to detect. The latter goal may be served by voting the "bias" more …
The Decision to Grant or Deny Certiorari: Further Consideration of Cue Theory
Political scientists now agree that the Supreme Court is a major institutional policy maker in the American political system. But they have done little to relate that conclusion to democratic theory. Nor have they bothered to draw the implications for structural reform of the Court that seem to flow from such a relationship. Specifically, we have been less concerned with holding Supreme Court justices accountable to those they govern than seeing …
The Supreme Court and Critical Elections: A Dissent
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Analysis of Behavior Patterns on the United States Supreme Court
Are Social Background Models Time-Bound
In this research note I seek to determine whether a significantly predicting social background model for analyzing the votes of Supreme Court justices is time-bound. I argue that an affirmative result poses serious questions for past uses of such models, none of which has controlled for the possibility that time is a confounding variable. A model that significantly predicted the votes of the justices in the Court's 1903-1968 terms was constructed…
Supreme Court Appointments as a Poisson Distribution
When Jimmy Carter stepped down as president on January 20, 1981, he carried with him at least one unique distinction: he is the only president serving four or more years who failed to make a single appointment to the U.S. Supreme Court. Since four-year presidents have appointed as many as five justices in a term and have averaged approximately two such appointments,' the Carter experience may be seen by some as anomalous. This is particularly tru…
Earl Warren and the Brown Decision
Toward a Theory of Sub-Group Formation in the United States Supreme Court
Parabolic Support of Civil Liberty Claims: The Case of William O. Douglas
Supreme Court Behavior and Civil Rights
T HE HIGHLIGHT of the 1956 term of the United States Supreme Court was the expanded protection given civil liberties. Court holdings considerably weakened the restrictive provisions of the Smith Act,' opened FBI files defendants in certain cases,2 and established safeguards around the exercise of congressional investigatory powers., The term was also notable for the fact that voting statistics identified the operation of a new libertarian4 bloc o…
Governmental Litigants, Underdogs, and Civil Liberties in the Supreme Court: 1903-1968 Terms
From an assortment of partial theories found in the literature, it was hypothesized that governmental litigants were more likely than nongovernmental litigants to be favored in cases decided by the United States Supreme Court. This proposition was tested for state and federal governments in civil liberty cases involving "underdogs" in the Court's 1903-1968 terms. The hypothesis was not supported for state and federal governments separately or for…
Supreme Court Justices as Strict and Not-so-Strict Constructionists: Some Implications
In making his televised announcement on the nominations of Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist for seats on the Supreme Court, Richard Nixon observed that he was merely fulfilling a campaign promise. For, he said: "... during my campaign for the Presidency, I pledged to nominate to the Supreme Court individuals who shared my judicial philosophy which is basically a conservative philosophy. ... As a judicial conservative, I believe some Court decis…
Researching the Supreme Court in a Democratic Pluralist System: Some Thoughts on New Directions
The political processes which invite research and the investment of associated resources are those identified as signiscant by the political theories to which we give credence. Though Democratic Pluralism is the most popular explanation of the political system in the United States, its ability to explain Supreme Court behavior cannot be evaluated, for observation of the processes by which Court agendas for national policy making purposes are cons…
Conflict with Supreme Court Precedent and the Granting of Plenary Review
This paper presents preliminary findings from a study designed to fill a gap in political scientists' knowledge about the extent to which the Supreme Court grants or denies plenary review when conflict with one or more of its precedents is claimed. The findings are that the presence of conflict promoted the granting of review between 1961 and 1976, including the Warren Court terms (1961-68), even in the face of controls for litigant status, civil…
Bricolage and Assorted Thoughts on Working in the Papers of Supreme Court Justices
Selected Articles and Documents on: Methodology and Research in the Social Sciences
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Supreme Court Behavior in Racial Exclusion Cases: 1935-1960
The United States Supreme Court is often guided by rules of law which make the disposition of cases depend upon singular combinations of circumstances. It is a relatively simple procedure to go through the cases in a subject matter area and compile a list of the facts the justices seem to have considered material to their solution of the issue at hand. But the identification of the peculiar combinations of events which push the decisions in one d…
Scaling Judicial Cases: A Methodological Note
Another step forward in the burgeoning legal science of court decisions is represented in this article by Dr. Ulmer of Michigan State University's Department of Political Science. Using coefficients of reproducibility and scalability, he shows how highly consistent is the position of individual Supreme Court justices concerning deprivations of civil liberties. While this note deals specifically with the application of scaling techniques to judici…
Local Autonomy in Japan Since the Occupation
Supreme Court Opinions: Getting the Message
The true significance of policy articulations by appellate courts lies in the behavioral responses of relevant parties below. Actions consistent with the intent of appellate sources is dependant on effective communication between message source and message recipient. Limiting focus to the U.S. Supreme Court as an appellate source, two measures of effective communications are developed. These measures incorporate two dimensions of comprehension di…
H 0: Post \OperatornameHoc Con - Straw-Man \OperatornameCon = 0
Local Autonomy in Japan Since the Occupation
Marble Palace
The Legal Realism of Jerome N. Frank
Congress and the American Tradition
Most Americans would probably be surprised to hear that, in 1959, James Burnham, a leading political thinker questioned whether Congress would survive, and whether the Executive Branch of the American government would become a dictatorship. In the last decade, members of Congress have impeached a president, rejected or refused to consider presidential nominees, and appear in the media criticizing the chief executive. Congress does not exactly app…
The Role of Pierce Butler in the Constitutional Convention
It is quite well known that South Carolina sent four aristocrats to represent her in the 1787 Constitutional Convention. It is less well known that one of the four merited a listing in Burke's Peerage . In fact, while much has been written about Charles Pinckney, C. C. Pinckney, and John Rutledge, the fourth member of the delegation has been the subject of a few biographical sketches and virtually nothing more. And yet Pierce Butler was not an in…
The Analysis of Behavior Patterns on the United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court Behavior and Civil Rights
T HE HIGHLIGHT of the 1956 term of the United States Supreme Court was the expanded protection given civil liberties. Court holdings considerably weakened the restrictive provisions of the Smith Act,' opened FBI files defendants in certain cases,2 and established safeguards around the exercise of congressional investigatory powers., The term was also notable for the fact that voting statistics identified the operation of a new libertarian4 bloc o…
Our Common Law Constitution
Yesterday's Constitution Today: An Analysis of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890
Justices Black and Frankfurter: Conflict in the Court
On the Scaling of Judicial Decisions
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Scaling Judicial Cases: A Methodological Note
Another step forward in the burgeoning legal science of court decisions is represented in this article by Dr. Ulmer of Michigan State University's Department of Political Science. Using coefficients of reproducibility and scalability, he shows how highly consistent is the position of individual Supreme Court justices concerning deprivations of civil liberties. While this note deals specifically with the application of scaling techniques to judici…
Supreme Court Behavior in Racial Exclusion Cases: 1935-1960
The United States Supreme Court is often guided by rules of law which make the disposition of cases depend upon singular combinations of circumstances. It is a relatively simple procedure to go through the cases in a subject matter area and compile a list of the facts the justices seem to have considered material to their solution of the issue at hand. But the identification of the peculiar combinations of events which push the decisions in one d…
Public Office in the Social Background of Supreme Court Justices
The role of "costs" in political choice: A review
Peer Reviewed
Law and Politics in Inter-American Diplomacy
Neo-Behavioralism” and Public Law: Replies and Comments
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Selected Articles and Documents on Methodology and Research in the Social Sciences
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Scientific Method and the Judicial Process
The Rationing of Justice: Constitutional Rights and the Criminal Process
The Supreme Court on Trial. Charles S. Hyneman
Selected Articles and Documents on: Methodology and Research in the Social Sciences
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
American Political Science: A Profile of a Discipline
"American Political Science: A Profile of a Discipline." The Journal of Higher Education, 36(9), pp. 522–524
Toward a Theory of Sub-Group Formation in the United States Supreme Court
Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787
James Madison s record of the Constitutional Convention traces day by day the debates held from May to September 1787 and presents the only complete picture we have of the strategy, interests, and ideas of the founding fathers at the Convention itself. In this indispensable primary document, Madison not only provides detailed insights into one of the great events of our history, but clearly sets forth his own position on such issues as the balanc…
Political science (47 works) · Law (41 works) · Judicial and Constitutional Studies (27 works) · Law (26 works) · Supreme court (25 works) · Politics (24 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Legal and Constitutional Studies (18 works) · Law, Economics, and Judicial Systems (14 works) · American Constitutional Law and Politics (13 works)