DISSSERTATION
“Ruling in the Shadows: The
Supreme Court’s Use of the ‘Shadow Docket’ and its Effects”
Abstract: The Supreme Court has increased its policy making ability through a shadow docket built of cases that do not follow normal court procedures. My research asks what explains this institutional process and its impact. Using a variety of approaches, such as computer text analysis, a survey experiment, and other causal inference methods, I seek to understand the legal and extralegal factors that influence judicial decision making on the shadow docket as well as the justifications provided for these abnormal yet influential decisions. In my survey experiment, I found decreased public support for decisions made on the shadow docket as well as an increased support to diminish the power of the Supreme Court when the Justices utilize this docket. This research demonstrates the important implications that the shadow docket has for democratic governance in the United States
PUBLICATIONS
PEER REVIEWED
EmiLee Smart and Abbie Wood. 2024. “Women Robed in Independence: How Women Judges Influence Perceptions of Judicial Independence in Europe.” Forthcoming Journal of Law and Courts
EmiLee Smart. 2023. “A Shadow’s Influence: How the Supreme Court’s use of the Shadow Docket Influences Public Opinion.” American Political Research.
Shane A. Gleason and EmiLee Smart. 2022. “You Think; Therefore I Am; Gender Schemas & Context in Oral Arguments at the Supreme Court, 1979-2016.” Political Research Quarterly.
OTHER
EmiLee Smart. 2022. “Part-of-Speech Tagging: Basics and Application.” Law and Courts Newsletter, Newsletter of the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association, Pages 15-19. Volume 32, Number 1, Spring 2022.
Working papers and Projects
Smart, EmiLee., “Granted the Paupers’ 5000+: Examination of In forma Pauperis Applications to the US Supreme Court”
Smart, EmiLee., Justin Wedeking. ”Connecting News of Native American Court Decisions Across Space.
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