American Politics Commons^™

Habeas Corpus: Breaking Reservation Boundaries, Samantha Byrd

Digital Legal Research Lab

Dr. Katrina Jagodinsky’s Petitioning for Freedom examines marginalized peoples’ use of habeas corpus in the American West from 1812 to 1924. This project has uncovered Indigenous manipulation of the American legal system to counter the challenges of colonialism. Indigenous peoples used habeas to protest, and sometimes successfully mitigate boarding school experiences, forced removal, and confinement on reservations. This study aims to show how Indigenous peoples and other minorities had a complex understanding of the law and used it to their advantage.

Advisor: Katrina Jagodinsky

Life Of The Party: Social Networks, Public Attention, And The Importance Of Shocks In The Presidential Nomination Process, Elizabeth A. Stiles, Colin D. Swearingen, Linda Seiter

2022 Faculty Bibliography

We examine the effects of shocks on the invisible Presidential primary in the United States. First, we build on existing models using an algorithm simulating social network shocks. Findings show that positive shocks significantly aid the lead candidate’s chances of winning in the invisible primary. Negative shocks, however, are less detrimental to a lead candidate than positive shocks are helpful, as the leader is often able to survive a negative shock and still emerge victorious. Broad empirical tests demonstrate the importance of shocks as well. Beyond the importance of shocks, findings also suggest that Presidential candidate success in the invisible …

The Epic Journey Of Pepe The Frog: A Study In Post-Truth, Jaq Webb

[Archive] Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Abstract

The internet meme Pepe the Frog is an excellent avenue for exploring the relationship between post-truth politics, new media, and viral ideas. While memes as conceptualized by Richard Dawkins are essentially timeless components of human society, internet memes as exemplified by the hijacking of Pepe the Frog by the Alt-Right and the Trump campaign are a novel force with uniquely dark implications for liberal democracy. In this study, I attempt a leftist analysis of the best thinking about Post-Truth Trump-era politics and the communication tactics of the Alt-Right, which suggests that some of the same cultural and material forces …

A Home Shielded By Laws: Freedom Suits And Enslaved Mothers, Heidi Martin

Digital Legal Research Lab

This project collects, digitizes, and makes accessible the freedom suits brought by enslaved families in the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia, Maryland state courts, and the United States Supreme Court. This project places families in the foreground of our interpretive framework of slavery and national formation.

Using TEI encoding, we focused on outcomes, relationships between individuals and the claim for freedom made. Using these data sets, I focused specefically on mothers petitioning for their children. Of the 508 cases I utilized, 131 included children and a parental figure. I set out to distinguish the additional burden mothers had …

In The Waiting: The Role Of The Slave Bastille In Antebellum D.C., Ellyzabeth Morales-Ledesma

Digital Legal Research Lab

In 1808 the Transatlantic Slave Trade ended and in turn the government created a federally protected human market. As the South's demand for human labor force increased the domestic slave trade rocketed and in turn created even more turmoil for the Black population if the United States. Slave Traders and Man-Dealers took advantage of the market and kidnapped Free Black men women and children. While waiting to be sold enslaved people would be admitted into holding cells and jails; this was the creation of slave jails and Slave Bastilles. Slave jails served as places where the horrors of a human …

The Acoustics Of Civil Resistance: Summoning The Spirit Of The Law With A Smartphone, Sharon Sliwinski

Data and Test Instruments

Inspired by Diamond Reynolds’s radical gesture to open a live broadcast in the moments after Philando Castile was shot by police in 2016, this paper explores the ways smartphones have become a critical tool of civil resistance. The paper situates this tool in a historical context, tracking the role of visual testimony in the long struggle for Black liberation, drawing special attention to the acoustic dimension and posing questions about how attending to the sonic environment modifies our understanding of bearing witness as embodied practice and our understanding of civil resistance.

Continuity And Change Of Latter-Generational Racism In The United States From 2004 - 2016, Collin Swords

Honors Program Theses

Does the intensity of racial attitudes among voters in the U.S. change from 2004-2016? Do attitudes of latter-generational racism like negative stereotyping, racial resentment, anti-black affect, and white identity impact voter’s perceptions of Presidential candidates throughout 2004 - 2016? Additionally, what is the impact of race on these preferences, specifically white racial sensitivity? This thesis examines the impact of latter-generational attitudes on Republican Presidential Candidate affect over a time series of 2004 – 2016. Over time, the Republican Party is becoming more male, white, and lower income/ educated while the Democrat Party is becoming more diverse and better educated. Over …

Habeas Corpus As A Means For Economic Freedom In The Progressive Era, Janana Khattak

Digital Legal Research Lab

Habeas corpus protects individual freedom by allowing detained individuals proper trial. Economic liberty, or the “right to earn a living in an occupation of choice without unnecessary government interference,” is a key component of individual freedom. Following the depression of 1893, the Progressive Era ushered in a sharp increase in productivity. This was in part because of an immigration boom. While immigrants sought economic opportunities for the betterment of themselves and their families, ideologies of nativism rose.

Advisor: Katrina Jagodinsky

Abraham Lincoln: Thoughts On Slavery And Racial Equality, Abraham Scofield

OUR Journal: ODU Undergraduate Research Journal

Looking at the political thought of Abraham Lincoln, two major themes arise: slavery and racial equality. Development of his thought on these subjects spanned his entire life and is revealed through his speeches, public statements, and written works. With the sheer amount of thought that Lincoln dedicated to these subjects, it can be difficult to decipher where he truly stood on these issues. To come to a more concrete understanding of Lincoln’s thought regarding these subjects, this article offers multiple interpretations of each of these themes. Concerning Lincoln’s thought on slavery, three interpretations arise: the Anti-Expansion interpretation, the Moral Opposition …

News Treatment Of The Supreme Court: Language Selection, Ideological Directions, And Public Support, Alexander Denison

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

In an increasingly diverse media landscape, how much of the ideological trends seen in current news reporting affect coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court? This work examines two different aspects of the Court's activities, their decisions and the confirmation hearings of Court nominees, analyzing what factors, if any, lead to differences in coverage language. Finally, through the use of a survey experiment, I analyze whether these differences in language, in combination with positive symbolic imagery, affect attitudes toward the institution. This work provides a novel consideration of whether the Court is subject to the same ideological slant found in coverage …

The Influence Of The Federalist Society On Judical Politics And Law In The United States, Peter S. K. Lynch

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

This dissertation examines the Federalist Society, which is a network of conservative and libertarian attorneys, judges, law professors, and law students. The organization was founded by law students at Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, and the University of Chicago Law School in 1982, and has, over the last four decades, come to play a central role in law and politics in the United States. Individuals affiliated with the Federalist Society influence the law through a variety of avenues.

Federalist Society-members advance the goals of the conservative legal movement in a variety of capacities—by writing amicus curiae briefs providing the …

State Of The Parties 2022 (Ninth Edition), John C. Green, David B. Cohen, Kenneth M. Miller

The State of the Parties

The State of the Parties 2022 brings together leading scholars of parties, elections, and interest groups to provide an indispensable overview of American political parties today. The 2020 presidential election was extraordinary. What role did political parties play in these events? How did the party organizations fare? What are the implications for the future? Scholars and practitioners from throughout the United States explore the current state of American party organizations, constituencies and resources at the national, state and local level.

Desperate Democrats In The Reagan Revolution: A Party Determined To Win The White House, Matthew Maxwell Akins

Senior Independent Study Theses

Bill Clinton’s 1992 election to the presidency as a Democrat ended a series of defeats for that party on the presidential level. Clinton may have won the White House, but he did not do it alone. In the decade before his victory, the “New Democrats” worked to moderate the Democratic Party from within, responding to the presidential losses of 1980, 1984, and 1988. Scholars have explored this topic from many angles, but none have explored it from the perspective of these “New Democrats” in a way that traces their story from Al From and Gillis Long to the DLC and …

Setting The Stage For Representation: Women Candidates And Moderators' Impact On The Prevalence Of Women's Issues In Presidential Primary Debates, Hannah Groetsch

Senior Independent Study Theses

This Independent Study explores how women’s increased presence in presidential primary debates impacts the extent to which women’s issues are discussed in the debates. Prior research on political representation and critical mass theory indicates that women politicians can turn their identity as women (descriptive representation) into action that benefits their women constituents (substantive representation) by adding women’s voices and lived experiences into the political conversation. I capitalize on the 2020 election being the first where multiple women presidential candidates ran against each other, allowing me to see whether the increase in the number of women participating in the Democratic primary …

From The Parks To The Polls: National Parks, Place Attachment, And Environmental Voting Behavior, Rebecca Larue

Senior Independent Study Theses

This study examines the relationship between National Park visitation, place attachment, and levels of support for pro-environmental ballot measures. The theoretical argument for this relationship is that increased visitation to National Parks will lead to increased place attachment, or connection, to the National Parks. This increased connection to a place of natural beauty could cause people to be more inclined to support ballot measures that protect the environment. A survey, administered through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, was used to collect the data, and a mediation analysis was used to analyze it. The results of this study show that visitation to National …

À La Carte Cable: A Regulatory Solution To The Misinformation Subsidy, Christopher R. Terry, Eliezer J. Silberberg, Stephen Schmitz, John Stack, Eve Sando

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Although “fake news” is as old as mass media itself, concerns over disinformation have reached a fever pitch in our current media environment. Online media outlets’ heavy reliance on user-generated content has altered the traditional gatekeeping functions and professional standards associated with traditional news organizations. The idea of objectivity-focused informational content has primarily been substituted for a realist acceptance of the power and popularity of opinion-driven “news.” This shift is starkly visible now: mainstream news media outlets knowingly spread hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and the like.

This current state of affairs is not some freak accident. The Supreme Court’s First Amendment …

Spies, Sanctions, And Single-Party States: How American Sanctions Influence Intelligence Operations, Anthony J. Anta

Honors Undergraduate Theses

States have a diverse and unique set of available mechanisms to deploy when seeking to interact in the international community. Economic sanctions have long been one such tool available for states looking to coerce or incentivize a change in the behavior of another state. Likewise, states have historically sought to influence and gain unknown knowledge on another state or actor. Covert intelligence operations have changed forms, mechanisms, and techniques, especially since the expansive advancements in technology in the 21^st century. This paper seeks to understand the influence that economic sanctions have on the ability for single-party states to conduct …

Voting Trends In Immigrant Women To The United States, Enia Levis

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The aim of this paper is to explore and explain the relationship between various cultural and societal factors on how immigrant women to the U.S. vote. There is a growing amount of research on the voting habits of both women, and immigrants. This paper seeks to understand the voting habits of individuals who identify with both categories. This thesis utilizes public opinion data from the 2018 General Social Survey to discover if there is a relationship between country of origin in addition to gender, and if the respondent voted for Trump or Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. My theory …

Moving From Harm Mitigation To Affirmative Discrimination Mitigation: The Untapped Potential Of Artificial Intelligence To Fight School Segregation And Other Forms Of Racial Discrimination, Andrew Gall

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Segregating Cities, Separating Environments: A Look At The Relationship Between Redlining And Polluting Facilities In Philadelphia, Natalie Chartove

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between federal redlining policy and the siting of air polluting facilities, using a dual approach of geospatial analysis and historiography on Philadelphia as a case study. Geographic Information System (GIS) tools are applied to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data on air polluting facilities and the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) Residential Security Maps. This analysis is used to determine the number of facilities within redlined neighborhoods and their patterns of density. Findings suggest that higher concentrations of polluting facilities are present in those neighborhoods ranked lowest by the HOLC, while neighborhoods ranked highest show remarkably …