SSC Research Project
Judges make decisions on a daily basis that can have a lasting impact on the parties before them in court, especially appellate or high court judges at the state and national level. More importantly, judicial decision also set a precedent that impacts society at large, going beyond the individual parties in court. This is where multiple areas of research converge that study judicial decision making, how law is applied in society and the impact these decisions have on society.
For this project, you will be tasked with making that connection by analyzing and predicting how a judge will decide a particular case and the impact the decision will have on society at large.
Part 1: Select a justice
The first section will discuss one Ohio State Supreme Court justice, that is pre-selected, and discuss variables that help explain how the selected justices would decide a case. Most importantly, justification must be provided as to why these variables are important to predicting judicial decision making (meaning, citations to course material or other scholarly source). Each student must come up with at least 3 variable that they believe will help explain a judge’s decision-making behavior. These variables must be supported by social science research.
Part 2: Selection a situation
From the list provided below, you will select one situation to apply your theory of judicial decision making to and make an argument as to how your judge would rule in the scenario provided. Additionally, you must also discuss how that decision will impact people in society differently.
Paper Requirements
The paper must be a minimum of 4 pages and a max of 5. It should include a cover page and work cited, that do not count toward the page requirements. Size 12, times new roman font. 1-inch margins on all sides. Double spaced. A minimum of 3 peer reviewed, scholarly sources. Citations should be in APA format.
Grading
The key to this paper is making logical variables that are well supported as to why they explain how the selected judge would decide the hypothetical case, and a logical and well-argued discussion of how the decision will impact different groups in society. Thus, the best papers will draw a clear and logical connection between the justice, the decision and the impact.
Pick 1 Justice:
Maureen O’Connor
Sharon L. Kennedy
Patrick F. Fischer
R. Patrick DeWine
Michael P. Donnelly
Melody J. Stewart
Jennifer Brunner
Pick 1 Situation (please note: these are hypotheticals situations are do not relate directly to state courts. For this assignment, the Ohio state judge you select will be hypothetically part of the United States Supreme Court).
It is left to the states to decide if they will have the death penalty or not (with some regulations put in place by the federal government). At one point during the nation’s history, the Supreme Court blocked all executions because states were not applying the punishment equally. Even though states have worked to rectify the problems, there are still strong arguments either way. In this scenario, your selected judge must rule as to whether or not the death penalty is a violation of 14th Amendment.
Many states have laws that place restrictions on voting rights, specifically, the right to vote for ex-felons. There are strong arguments on both sides to uphold or to strike down this practice. For this scenario, how would your selected judge rule if having to make a decision if an ex-felon sued to claim that banning ex-felons from voting was a violation of the 14th Amendment.
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