Education
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
B.A., Vassar College
Courses Taught
Constitutional Law
Civil Liberties
Judicial Process
American Government
Affirmative Action, Same-Sex Marriage, and the Constitution
Current Projects
My primary research currently revolves around Supreme Court confirmation hearings. My colleague Justin Wedeking (University of Kentucky) and I developed a method for assessing how forthcoming nominees are during their hearings. This first-of-its-kind technique for assessing nominee candor has earned national media attention in outlets such as the New York Times, Congressional Quarterly, National Public Radio, PBS NewsHour, and dozens of other newspapers and blogs. Our findings have been published in Law & Society Review and Hofstra Law Review. Our book is under contract with University of Michigan Press.
My other research area involves the relationship between the Supreme Court and public opinion. In particular, I focus on the Court's legitimacy, and whether its actions have any effect on how much respect the public has for the Court. One of my articles in this area -- an experimental study that tests whether the types of reasoning that justices employ in their written opinions can undermine the Court's perceived legitimacy -- has been published recently in Political Research Quarterly.
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