Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSupreme Court Justices Are Getting 'Grumpier,' Study Finds
Computer analysis of decisions going back to John Jay finds increasing dyspepsia and a "lower grade level" of writingby Paul Barrett
10:07 AM EDT
April 22, 2015
As the Supreme Court heads into its end-of-term heavy season, with gay marriage and Obamacare on the docket, scholars at Dartmouth and the University of Virginia have collaborated on computer-driven research showing that the justices' opinions are growing "more long-winded and grumpier." Here are the key findings.
Law clerks in the works
The researchersfrom Dartmouth, Keith Carlson, a computer science Ph.D. candidate, and Daniel Rockmore, a professor of computer science and mathematics; and from Virginia, Michael Livermore, an associate law professorstudied the frequency of use of "content-free" words, which are also known as function words. The words reveal "stylistic fingerprints" that are "the foundation for the large-scale study of literary style," the scholars write.
Their analysis found that as law clerksrecent, academically gifted law school graduates who assist the justices in their workhave taken on a larger role since the late 1950s, "the justices individual writing styles [have become] less consistent, presumably because the pool of clerks turns over each year," according to a summary of the scholars' forthcoming article for the Washington University Law Review. "At the same time, the individual differences between justices diminished, leading to greater institutional writing style consistency on the court."
Or, more bluntly: The justices' increased reliance on clerks to write drafts of their opinions has resulted in a certain sameness in the product.
More words, less civility
Other key findings include that modern justices, with their prolific clerks, tend to produce more words than their predecessors did before the mid-1950s. Moreover, the Dartmouth and UVA scholars found, "modern justices opinions are grumpieror much less 'friendly' (the percentage of positive versus negative words)than the opinions of earlier justices."
And "modern justices opinions are written at a lower grade level than the opinions of their predecessors," the scholars found. Perhaps looking for a silver lining, the researchers concluded that contemporary Supreme Court opinions are "easier to understand than their predecessors." So that's something.
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-22/supreme-court-justices-are-getting-grumpier-study-finds
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
6 replies, 735 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (3)
ReplyReply to this post
6 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Supreme Court Justices Are Getting 'Grumpier,' Study Finds (Original Post)
Purveyor
Apr 2015
OP
"modern justices’ opinions are written at a lower grade level" too it says ...
bemildred
Apr 2015
#5
PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)1. So law clerks are getting grumpier then? n/t
tularetom
(23,664 posts)2. Wow, that really fooled me
The post title had The Onion written all over it.
Cosmic Kitten
(3,498 posts)3. Conservative and Grumpy are correlated? Who knew lol
niyad
(113,318 posts)4. others are just now noticing this?
bemildred
(90,061 posts)5. "modern justices’ opinions are written at a lower grade level" too it says ...
The current crop were not picked for their brains or integrity, that much has been clear for some time now.
Gothmog
(145,289 posts)6. Having an idiot like Clarence Thomas on the court really hurts
The writing of SCOTUS opinions have declined. Thomas writes some of the worse opionions that I have seen