Ryan McCoy

Graduation Semester and Year

2014

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Department

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

First Advisor

M. Lewis Wasserman

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of political ideology, appointment era, decisional era, and religious affiliation on voting at the United States Supreme Court in K-12 race discrimination cases using binary logistic regression as its main statistical tool. The principal findings for this group of K-12 decisions covering the period 1954-2013 are: (1) justices appointed by Republican presidents voted significantly more often in a conservative pro-school district direction in K-12 race discrimination disputes than justices appointed by Democratic presidents; (2) justices appointed in 1981 and later [the Reagan and later appointees voted significantly more often in a conservative pro-school district direction in K-12 race discrimination disputes than justices appointed in 1980 and earlier; (3) no significant overall differences in conservative pro-school district voting was observed in conservative pro-school district voting between the 1981 and later period and the 1980 and earlier period; (4) Republican justices appointed during 1981 and later years voted significantly more often in a conservative pro-school district direction than Republican justices appointed during 1980 and earlier years; (5) Democratic justices appointed during 1981 and later years voted in a significantly more often in a conservative pro-school district direction than Democratic justices appointed during 1980 and earlier years; (6) Mainline Protestant justices appointed by a Republican presidents voted significantly more often in conservative pro-school district direction in K-12 race discrimination disputes for the period 1964-2013 than Mainline Protestant justices appointed by Democratic presidents; (7) no significant differences in conservative pro-school district voting in K-12 race discrimination disputes were observed between Mainline Protestant justices appointed in 1980 and earlier and those appointed in 1981 and later; (8) no significant differences in conservative pro-school district voting was observed between the Catholic justices appointed by Republican presidents and Catholic justices appointed by Democratic presidents; (9) Catholic justices appointed during 1981 and later years voted in a conservative pro-school district direction significantly more often than the Catholic justices appointed during 1980 and earlier years; and (10) conservative pro-school district panel outcomes increased significantly as the number of Republican justices on a panel increased.The implications of these results were considered in terms of the legal and attitudinal models of decision making at the Supreme Court. Overall, the results confirmed the viability of attitudinal model of judicial decision making as applied to K-12 race discrimination cases. Direction for future research in this area was suggested, and the limitations of the model used were also discussed.

Disciplines

Education | Educational Leadership

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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