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A research project aimed at understanding the forces that shape decisions written by one of the U.S. Supreme Court’s most controversial justices is helping three government and law seniors shape their opinions and future plans.
Beginning this past summer, Lori Weaver (White Haven, Pa.), Brendan O’Regan (Ringwood, N.J.), and Allison Ligorano (Clinton, N.J.) have been discussing how Justice Antonin Scalia’s decisions are a result of his life phases and crisis points in Daniel Levinson’s seasons of life theory. The project, titled Seasons of Politics and Justice, provides the students with an opportunity to work alongside Bruce Murphy, Kirby Professor of Government & Law. Another trio of students began the project with Murphy last school year.
Murphy is a nationally recognized judiciary-system scholar and author of several best-selling books on the Supreme Court. MSNBC featured him in “Justice Stevens is Key to High Court’s Future” on aging Supreme Court justices’ reluctance to step down from the bench. He is author of Wild Bill: The Legend and Life of William O. Douglas(Random House, 2003), a definitive biography of the Supreme Court’s most accomplished and most controversial justice. His first book, The Brandeis/Frankfurter Connection: The Secret Political Activities of Two Supreme Court Justices (Oxford University Press, 1982), was featured in a front-page story in The New York Times and became the subject of a nationwide debate on judicial ethics. Murphy’s second book, Fortas: The Rise and Ruin of a Supreme Court Justice (William Morrow, 1988), was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award, and Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.
The collaboration is part of the Lafayette initiative Community of Scholars, which is supported by College funding and a $200,000 grant from the Andrew M. Mellon Foundation. The three-year initiatives allow faculty members from a variety of disciplines to work with students in small group settings.
“Last year, we turned our attention to the Rehnquist court and that helped us begin to understand the connection between life cycles of justices serving at the same time,” Murphy says. “This year, we’re taking those theoretical insights and focusing on one justice.”
The team hopes to test and expand on Levinson’s theory of the distinct phases in life.
“We might be able to sense what kind of potential there is to explore people who might be appointed to the court and predict how they would perform down the road,” Murphy explains. “It would be really neat if you could tell a [politician] charged with appointing a justice, ‘Here are the kinds of things that might happen if he or she is appointed.’”
Weaver, a Trustee Scholar and double major in history and government & law, says being able to predict how potential justices will act and gauge their inclinations is a beneficial aspect of the project. She views the research as an asset for her plans to attend law school.
“This is allowing us to be independent thinkers,” she says. “It enables us to create our own ideas and theories. That’s the type of skills that will really carry us into the future.”
Each student’s theories develop from reading Scalia’s past decisions. Over the summer, they met weekly to discuss perceptions of his actions, and have continued to stay in constant contact throughout the academic year.
“The students are looking at Scalia’s [U.S.] Court of Appeals work to understand who he was before being appointed to the Supreme Court. Each of them is in the process of developing their own theories about who he will become,” Murphy explains. “Then we will trace the lines of decisions once Scalia was on the Supreme Court. The students will try to break down where the points of instability and crisis might be and that will tell them his seasons and his change of seasons.”
Murphy notes that this study is especially relevant with the recent instability of the Court brought on by the death of Rehnquist and the retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor. John Roberts was appointed to succeed Rehnquist as Chief Justice, and Samuel Alito was tapped to replace O’Connor.
This academic year, the students are exploring the topic more in-depth and filling in the gaps from their summer findings. They are examining the relationship between Scalia’s decisions in relation to the rest of the Court and studying the impact they have on the country.
The students agree that understanding Scalia’s writings has proven to be the most difficult part of the work.
“Scalia’s Supreme Court decisions typically range from 20 to 40 pages and the legal language, especially because Scalia’s father was a professor of language at Columbia, is very complex and researched so it took a while to adjust to that level of writing,” says O’Regan, a double major in government & law and anthropology & sociology.
“Aside from just reading the cases, we’re looking for a lot of subtle undertones,” adds Weaver. “We have to really get beneath the surface writing.”
Struggling through the writing has revealed other information in addition to Scalia’s mindset – the students have noticed differences in the way they formulate conclusions.
“One of the most interesting things we’ve found since doing the project is that Brendan, Lori, and I all usually reach the same kind of opinion about his writings, but we’ve taken different ways to get there,” says Ligorano, a double major in government & law and psychology.
Murphy says the differences among the researchers are what make the collaboration so innovative.
“The beauty of this project is you have three very talented individuals, all with unique theories that they’re trying to prove using their own methods of research. When we meet to conduct our discussion and exchange views, there’s a cross-pollination of views that allows them to refine their theories and expand their horizons a bit.”
While the multi-disciplinary nature of the group does make for more animated discussions, the students believe that since the team is so small, they are more willing to contribute information from their personal areas of expertise.
“This [group size] affords us the opportunity to engage in an academic pursuit and spar with one another in a free-flowing debate,” says O’Regan. “In the corporate world today, college experiences like this are so important. Regardless of where any one of us is going, being a team player and understanding how to work are important qualities and that’s something that’s really infused here.”
Murphy adds that the students, whom he handpicked for their research and analytical abilities, are learning some very practical skills.
“This gives them a chance to work in a one-on-one — in this case a one-on-three — relationship with a professor who has experience in this kind of research and academic analysis,” he says. “So it allows them to essentially learn by doing and the hope is they will be able to carry the experience forward in their class work, daily intellectual pursuits, and eventually their careers.”
Although O’Regan is undecided about his career path, the project is helping him make up his mind.
“It’s an opportunity to really focus my interests,” he says. “That’s one of the reasons I chose Lafayette: You can get this one-on-one or one-on-three student-professor relationship, which is helping me develop where I want to go in life. This is a good opportunity for me.”
Ligorano adds that reading and understanding legal writings and writing case briefs will benefit her when she attends law school.
As the Community of Scholars program enters its third year next semester, Murphy looks forward to working with a new group of students and shifting the research focus to the changing court under Roberts.
Weaver is completing a senior honors thesis under the guidance of Ilan Peleg, Dana Professor of Social Science, on the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in pursuit of departmental honors. She conducted prior academic research as an EXCEL Scholar when she helped Joshua Sanborn, associate professor of history, gather information for a book on the gender revolution in modern Europe. She also completed independent study research. She is president of College Democrats, captain of the mock trial team, and co-founder and co-chair of the College’s chapter of the Save Darfur campaign. She is a prison tutor, reporter for TheLafayette, member of History Club, and tour guide for the admissions office.
O’Regan studied abroad in Rome and produced a documentary on International Students Association for Qualitative Methods of Research, an anthropology course taught by Dan Bauer, professor of anthropology. The two worked together through a Technology Clinic class to create Alumni News for Undergraduates,a publication providing news on students, young alumni, and the alumni resources available to students. He is a McKelvy Scholar and member of Crew Club. He graduated from Lakeland Regional High School.
Ligorano is the academic development chair for Delta Delta Delta sorority, a member of the equestrian team, and a former member of Newman Association. She graduated from Mount St. Mary Academy.
Selected from among Lafayette’s top applicants, Trustee Scholars like Weaver have distinguished themselves through exceptional academic achievement in high school. They receive from Lafayette an annual minimum scholarship of $7,500 ($8,000 effective with the Class of 2009) or a grant in the full amount of their demonstrated need if the need is more than $7,500.