This thesis examines the construction of ideology in three public speeches held by the Secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani. Shamkhani’s position makes him one of the most powerful public officials in Iran, with vast influence over domestic and international security matters, including over Iran’s nuclear negotiations. This thesis presents theories on discourse analysis as ideology analysis, which enables identification of linguistical ideologization. With this theory as backdrop, three speeches with varying content and context are analysed in order to determine whether or not Shamkhani is constructing ideology in them. Political officials are arguably expected to ideologize speeches to a certain extent. Even though Shamkhani enjoys a similar seniority as many politicians, Shamkhani’s position remains formally apolitical, which makes it is interesting to analysis his speeches. Linguistic analyses of public speeches in Iran are rarely deployed when attempting to understand the Islamic Republic but given the attention Iranian officials themselves ascribe their language, a discourse analysis of what they say might disclose otherwise hidden qualities in their communications. Through the speeches’ diverse content in written, orally formal and orally colloquial Farsi, it was possible not only to establish that Shamkhani uses discourse to construct ideology but also to what extent this is done, depending on modes of communication.

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The research problem examined in my thesis is stated clearly in the title: Justice Brennan and The Bill of Rights. In my examination, I relied primarily on Brennan's opinions, and secondarily, on scholarly commentaries authored by Brennan and others. I located the cases through a combination of sources. Initially, I consulted the Harvard Law Reviews' "Supreme Court Term, (1956-1981) Term(s)," which is published annually in its November edition, and then, I turned to the writings by, and about, Brennan my findings show that Brennan's approach in these cases has evolved over the years toward a more absolutist one.

The topic of this thesis is nomination of justices of the Supreme Court, the highest federal court in the United States. The Constitution gives the power to appoint new federal justices to the president, with "advice and consent" of the Senate. This clause is based on one of the primary constitutional principles used in the United States - the system of checks and balances. The first part describes the general aspects of all nominations, from court vacancies to the final vote on Senate floor. The primary roles of the president and the Senate are defined. Focus is also set on the evolution of the nomination process throughout the history, as well as the criteria for selecting new justices, who shape the constitutional development of one of the oldest functioning democracies. The structure of the first part is then applied for a description of the nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh, who was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Donald Trump in 2018. The course of this nomination was strongly affected by sexual assault accusations against the nominee and fierce partisan battles that resulted in the closest confirmation vote in history. The final part applies quantitative research methods to discover the influence of partisan difference between the president and the Senate majority on the...

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The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the evolution of its influence as a result of judicial interpretation Abstract The thesis analyzes the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and the changes in its understanding resulting from its interpretation by the Supreme Court of the United States throughout the years since the ratification of the Amendment. The thesis discusses every section of the Fourteenth Amendment, but the highest attention is dedicated to its most significant first section and the clauses contained in it; the citizenship clause, the privileges or immunities clause, the due process clause and the equal protection clause. The debates of the 39th Congress are discussed as well, as they offer an insight to the original understanding of the terms used in the text of the Amendment and allow to understand the context of its origin. The evolution of the Amendment's influence is then analyzed through a number of historical eras that reflect the ever-changing composition of the Court and the decisions stemming from it. The thesis tries to outline the most likely original meaning of the Amendment's clauses and compare it to their interpretation by the Supreme Court which makes it possible to observe the Amendment's gradually growing influence on american...

Judicial politics scholars routinely posit that the behavior of Supreme Court justices is motivated in important part by concerns of institutional maintenance, that is, by a desire to maintain the Court’s unusually large store of institutional legitimacy. Previous work on this topic, however, has focused almost exclusively on the influence of such motivation on judicial decision making. We contend that if institutional maintenance is an important goal, it should be observable in other contexts as well. We examine televised mass-media interviews with Supreme Court justices from 1998 to 2016 and find that legitimacy reinforcement is the predominant goal reflected in justices’ rhetoric in those interviews.

As indicated by the title, this study presents a history of Federal Legislation against Mormon polygamy prior to 1890 and of certain United States Supreme Court decisions supporting such legislation. Of necessity, the subject had to be limited, emphasis being placed upon three legislative acts and upon a few leading court decisions.