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PSCI 3210: The U.S. Supreme Court (Honors)

This class page is based on the research projects required for Dr. Paul Collins' Political Science 3210 course. If you find you need more help, use the Ask Us services. Library reference staff members can be reached in person and through phone and email. You may also contact the library liaison for the Political Science Department, Julie Leuzinger.

Biography Paper

The purpose of the biography paper is for students to better familiarize themselves with the justice that will be the focus of their research papers. You will author a biography of the Supreme Court justice you are investigating for your research paper (who served from 1953-2010), focusing on that justice's career before the justice took his or her seat on the Supreme Court.

First Step: Starting your research with reference resources, using CQ Press

• Go to CQ Press Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court to review Justices of the Court to see which president nominated them, who the justice would replace, or review Justice Biographies.
• Other useful reference resources for this project are the Supreme Court Compendium, the Supreme Court Year Book (only goes back to 1989), and the Supreme Court A to Z.
  

Second Step: How to find books, searching the UNT Libraries Catalog

• Search by subject to find books about your topic. Select Subject from the tabs above the text box and type in your justice's name (last name first), for example: O'Connor, Sandra Day.
  
• At the subject page you will see a list of topics in the library's catalog that refer to your justice. (In some cases you may need to do a keyword search but try subject first.)
  

Third Step: How to find articles in EBSCO Legal Collection and JSTOR

• To find articles on your justice use EBSCOhost Legal Collection or JSTOR (many titles in JSTOR are 2 to 5 years behind the publishing date so if you select Justice Sotomayor, you may not find much for confirmation and nomination.)
• In the search box type your justice's name in quotes (for example: "Sandra Day O'Connor") you may want to narrow your search to just find articles on nomination (for example: "Sandra Day O'Connor" and nomination.)

Research Paper

The purpose of the research paper is for students to better familiarize themselves with various explanations of judicial decision making, as they apply to the U.S. Supreme Court justices. Each student will use the U.S. Supreme Court justice from their Biography Paper and critically analyze that justice's voting behavior in at least five cases.

NEED TO WRITE A LITERATURE REVIEW?

Learn more here or attend one of our upcoming Literature Review Workshops!

LexisNexis Academic

You can search for the full-text of Supreme Court decisions in Lexis Nexis Academic
Please follow these steps:

• Select the US Legal link at the left panel of the opening screen.
• Right below US Legal, select Federal & State Cases (circled in red below) from the left panel.
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• From the Jurisdiction drop-down menu, select U.S. Supreme Court Cases (circled in red below).
• In the search box, type in O'Connor (highlighted in yellow below) and select Judges (circled in red below) from the drop down menu.
  
• In the search box below type in immigration (highlighted in yellow below) and click the red Search button to the right. (If you get too many cases, you can further limit the search by date and keywords in sections of the case).
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• Select a case and scroll to the last page to find Justice O'Connor's opinion. This will give you a good indicator of how she might rule in a similar case.

Campus Research (Westlaw)

Providing full text access to news, business, and legal resources, Campus Research also provides access to West's legal citation research service, KeyCite, and the Texas Annotated Code.

Search for a Specific Type of Case and Justice

• To get started, click the Law tab at the top left of the page. (You can also use this tab to clear out your research and get back to to main search page as well).
• On the Advanced Search page, select Supreme Court Cases (circled in red below)
  
• Search a term such as "eminent domain" (highlighted in yellow below)
  
• Add O'Connor's name (highlighted in yellow below) to the text field below "eminent domain," then click the blue Search button to the right to find Justice O'Connor's opinions on these types of cases.
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SUBJECT GUIDES FOR MORE RESOURCES

• Use the Political Science Subject Guide for subject specific resources.
• The Law Subject Guide may also be useful for this course (included in this guide is a section on the Supreme Court).

WRITING HELP

• You are required to use the American Political Science Association Style citations for your research paper.
• For writing assistance please contact the writing lab. 

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