Week 1.
Th. 1/24 Introduction
Week 2.
Tu. 1/29 Supreme Court Policy Making
Segal and Spaeth, chapter 1
Th. 1/31 Intro to SPSS
SPSS chs. 1, 2.
Week 3.
Tu. 2/5 Models of Decision Making
Segal and Spaeth, ch. 2; Epstein and
Knight, chs. 1, 2.
Th. 2/7 Descriptive Statistics
SPSS chs. 3 -5
Week 4
Tu. 2/12 The Supreme Court in American
History
Segal and Spaeth, chapter 3
Th. 2/14 Crosstabs
SPSS chs. 7 and 16
Week 5.
Tu. 2/19 Staffing the Court
Segal and Spaeth, chapter 4;
Th. 2/21 Plotting Data
SPSS Appendix A and ch. 8
Week 6.
Tu. 2/26 Which Cases for Decision
Segal and Spaeth, chapter 5; Epstein and
Knight, pp. 56-65, 79-88, 112-125
Th. 2/29 Variable Transformations; Hypothesis Testing (review);
SPSS Appendix B
SPSS chs. 9 and 10 (hypothesis testing)
Week 7.
Tu. 3/5 Midterm
Th. 3/7
t-tests
SPSS ch. 13
Week 8
Tu
3/12 The Decision on the Merits: The Attitudinal Model
Segal and Spaeth chapter 6
Th. 3/14 Correlation and Regression
SPSS ch. 19 pp. 373-392; ch. 20 pp.
407-414, 419-421.
Week 9
Tu. 3/19 The Decision on the Merits: The Legal Model
Kahn, Institutional Norms and Supreme Court Decision
Making; Segal and Spaeth, The Influence of Stare Decisis; Brisbin, Slaying the
Dragon; Knight and Epstein, the Norm of Stare Decisis; Brenner and Stier,
Retesting Segal and Spaeth; Songer and Lindquist, Not the Whole Story; and
Segal and Spaeth, Norms, Dragons and Stare Decisis (all in course pack)
Th. 3/21 SPSS Multivariate Regression
SPSS ch. 22 pp. 455-469.
Week 10
Tu. 4/2
Strategic Models
Epstein
and Knight pp. 88-95, 138-157; Segal, Supreme Court Deference (in course pack)
Th. 4/4 Logistic Regression
Segal and Spaeth, Appendix
Week 11
Tu.
4/9 Judicial Restraint
Segal and Spaeth, chapter 8;
Th. 4/11 Supreme Court Data Base
Week 12
Tu.
4/16 Opinion Assignment and
Opinion Coalitions
Segal and Spaeth, chapter 7. Epstein and Knight pp. 65-79, 95-107,
125-135
Th.
4/18 Computer Practicum
Week 13
Tu. 4/23 Impact
Segal and Spaeth, ch. 9
Th.
4/25 Research
Week 14
Tu.
4/25 Bush v. Gore
The Votes
that Counted
Th.
4/27 Research, cont’d
Week 15
Tu.
5/4 Term Papers Due
Presentation of term papers.
Final
Exam: Thursday May 11, 8:30 a.m.