Inaara McCray and Joshua Matthews, “The Impact of Supreme Court Justice Appearances on Public Support for the Supreme Court”
Mentor: Sara Benesh, Political Science
Poster #81
The appearances of the Supreme Court justices influence public perception of the Supreme Court. While it may seem that these appearances would enhance public support, at times, ideological speeches or political rhetoric can decrease public support. Thus finding what appearances elicit a certain reaction in the public is very important. To achieve this goal, cataloging the appearances is necessary. This was done by focusing on Google searches by year and by justice. Google was the chosen search engine because other databases are not likely to be used by the public. The act of collecting data included reading through the first 50 links of a Google search, and deciding if it was relevant. Relevant appearances happened after the justice was confirmed, and happened off the bench. Irrelevant appearances include a justice deciding on a case or writing an opinion. We did not follow embedded links to additional events found in a report. This displayed the kind of Google search and result, a member of the general public would encounter. Moreover, this emphasis enabled the measurement of media saturation. Four search terms were used for each Google search. The search terms are interview, speech, comments, and appearance. Qualifying appearances would be recorded in a Google form. Three justices that were focused on were Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Neil Gorsuch, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The data collection for these justices allows for a comparison of the number of appearances over time and the average appearance per year. The data displays that not all appearances have the same impact. This presentation will share findings from the data collection of the three justices and speculate about the larger implications for justice appearances.