Instructional Visualizations of the Work of the United States Supreme Court
Peter A. Hook, JD MSLIS, Doctoral Student, Indiana University—Bloomington
(http://ella.slis.indiana.edu/~pahook)
West Topic Space of the 2004 Term (No Procedural Topics – 3 Orphans)
Research Question: How can network graphing and information
visualization techniques improve the understanding of the work of the United
States Supreme Court?
July 2, 2005 New York Times
Ideological Landscape of the Justices
Appointed by a Democrat
Appointed by a Republican
Voting frequencies represented as the edge weight between nodes and presented visually as a
graph. Scalia and Thomas vote most frequently together and are joined least frequently by
Stevens. O’connor, and to a lesser extent Kennedy, are the judges most likely to join the liberal
members of the Court. (Rendered with Pajek using a stochastic, spring force algorithm.)
Case
Top Level West Topic
United States v. Booker, 125 S.Ct. 738 (2005).
Frequency of Voting Blocks in 5-4 Cases
Network Graphic Approach to Booker
(1994 -2003 Supreme Court Terms)
47%
82
Opinion:
Part 1
Dissent
Stevens
Breyer
Dissent
Opinion:
Part 1
175
Breyer
Stevens
Opinion:
Part 2
28
16%
Breyer
175
Stevens I
14
8%
Stevens II
Except
Footnote
17,
Part IV
Stevens III
Stevens I
Stevens II
Stevens IV
ALL OTHER GROUPINGS OF 5
51
29%
(34 different groupings)
Customary, Non-Visual, Explanation of
Joining Relationships of the Justices
Stevens III
Stevens IV
Opinion:
Part 2
175
Dissent
Dissent
Scalia
Thomas
Except
Footnote
17, Part IV
Breyer
(Highest repetition – 3 times)
175
Total 5 to 4 Cases = 175
Source: Statistics harvested from the Harvard Law Review
Dissent
Dissent
Scalia
Thomas
Main Opinion
Dissent
1