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Potpourri: 100% Political Scientist Edition

- July 4, 2012

* Seth Masket: “Want a reason to celebrate this Independence Day? Try this: elections.”

* Matt Dickinson: “Roberts’ ruling was almost certainly political, in the sense that it strengthened the perception that the Court is, in fact, a judicial body – not a partisan one.  But that sleight of hand – hypocritical though it may seem – is also a fundamental reason why we abide by the rule of law, and why we continued to view the Court more favorably than we do other political actors.”

* Kenneth Manning: “I find that Roberts is very conservative in his decision making in criminal justice disputes, and the data suggest that he is exceptionally conservative in civil liberties and rights cases (though the limited numbers of cases in this area restrict the ability to draw any firm conclusions). In labor and economic disputes, however, Judge Roberts has been more liberal than the appellate court average.” Via Taegan Goddard.

* Alan Abramowitz: “…the story of post-millennial voters becoming increasingly conservative and open to voting for Republican candidates clearly deserves to be taken with a large grain of salt especially since other evidence appears to directly contradict these conclusions.”

* David Karpf: “A lot of the criticisms that we hear of so-called “clicktivism” – that online petitions don’t change the world – kind of end up falling short, because they rely on a false dichotomy. While online petitions don’t change the world, offline petitions didn’t necessarily either.