Despite well documented evidence that both the level and diversity of amicus participation in state high courts have been growing, we know little about whether or under what conditions amicus briefs have an impact on court outcomes. This dissertation investigates how interest groups attempt to influence state supreme courts through their participation as amicus curiae. Using an original dataset assembled from content analysis of more than 2300 state supreme court decisions handed down between 1995 and 2010 and spanning three distinct areas of law - products liability, environmental law, and free speech/expression - I find that amicus briefs submitted by interest groups have the most influence over judicial outcomes in areas of law where interest groups routinely make large-scale donations to judicial campaigns. These results raise serious concerns about the influence of big money in judicial elections. The second part of this dissertation tests two competing theories of amicus influence to determine how state high court judges utilize amicus brief information in judicial decision making. The informational theory assumes the influence of amicus brief information to be evenly distributed across judges. However, theories of confirmation bias and motivated reasoning suggest that the information in amicus briefs may be received and evaluated differently depending upon the ideological predispositions of individual judges. Using multi-level modeling, I analyze the votes of more than 12,000 individual state high court judges to determine whether judge ideology conditions the influence of amicus briefs such that judges are more receptive to pro-attitudinal information contained in briefs from interest groups that share their predispositions. Results suggest that method of judicial retention and area of case law structures the mechanism of amicus brief influence. Amicus briefs appear to play an informational role in complex areas of case law but the presence of competitive judicial elections appear to alter the mechanism of amicus brief influence such that judicial responsiveness to amicus briefs is more closely tied to the reelection and campaign fundraising considerations of individual judges. The final portion of this dissertation investigates the case-level and court-level factors that attract interest group participation as amicus curiae in state high courts in order to better our understanding of interest group strategies when engaging state judiciaries. This paper tests the hypothesis that groups strategically target cases that will best serve the policy and institutional interests of the group, while focusing group resources on cases and courts where they are most likely to be successful. Results indicate that both liberal and conservative groups target state high courts that are elected through competitive and retention election processes rather than those that are appointed, suggesting that interest groups believe their influence will be greater with judges who are accountable to the public. Results also show that both liberal and conservative groups target courts from states that are ideologically sympathetic, but not necessarily from courts that are ideologically similar. / Political Science

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The author has tried to show in this study the broad applications laid down by the Supreme Court in its decisions dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses. The tolerance used by the Supreme Court in working out the immense problems created by this sect at such a critical period, shows how tolerance builds strength rather than lessens it.

Many people assume that when the U.S. Supreme Court invalidates a federal statute as unconstitutional, the Court's decision establishes binding precedent that narrows the U.S. Congress's available options. This thesis examines whether Congress has in practice been able to effectively circumvent Supreme Court precedents while still acting consistently with such precedents in a narrow sense by not repassing an identical statute. More specifically, this work explores whether the U.S. Congress was able to repass new statutes similar to those previously invalidated by the Rehnquist Court (1986-2005). To more fully probe this issue, this study examines how often Congress has responded in such a manner, how successful Congress was in replicating the initial invalidated statute's breadth and potency, the success of the amended statute's subsequent implementation or whether the new statutes survived judicial scrutiny, and lastly, whether legislative policy goals or Court precedents prevailed. The research focused on the Rehnquist Court because it invalidated an unprecedented 34 federal statutes. This analysis found that Congress offered 11 proposals, but only repassed four statutes attempting to replicate the initial invalidated statutes. Nevertheless, in the four instances of successful reenactment, Congress was able to achieve, in practice, indistinguishable potency and breadth in two statutes and identical potency with significantly narrower breadth in one statute. This work is significant because it demonstrates that occasionally Congress has utilized available tools—in this case repassing analogous statutes—to effectively counter Supreme Court precedents. The Supreme Court is not always the exclusive or irrevocable arbitrator of constitutional controversies. / Master of Arts

Since the acknowledgement of the entrapment defense by the Supreme Court in the case of Sorrells v. United States 287 U.S. 435 (1932) there have been discussions on how it should be applied. There are two schools of thought for the application of the entrapment defense. One is the objective test and the other is the subjective test for entrapment. The subjective test focuses on the defendant's predisposition while the objective test focuses on the activity of the government. The federal courts and thirty eight states use the subjective test for entrapment. Florida is one of the states that use the subjective test for entrapment. The majority of this study is focused on the history and application of the entrapment defense, with a focus on the state of Florida. The study will aim to examine the ramifications of applying a subjective test for entrapment. Furthermore, this study will shed some light on problems with the way the entrapment defense is applied in Florida. This study has led to new ideas about how and why a new test for entrapment should be embraced by the courts in Florida.

The purpose of this study identifies state court cases involving public school finance specifically related to adequacy and equity in funding. Results address how state court cases have challenged the constitutionality of school finance in the United States, including Texas, over the last 50 years. The study further shows how the decisions from previous cases have influenced the Supreme Court of Texas decision in the Texas Taxpayer & Student Fairness litigation.

This dissertation attempts to determine what Britain expected from participation in the Supreme Economic Council (SEC) of the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and to what extent its expectations were realized. An investigation of available sources reveals that access to European markets and raw materials and a balance of power to prevent French, German, or Russian hegemony in Europe were British foreign policy goals that SEC delegates sought to advance. Primary sources for this study include unpublished British Foreign Office and Cabinet records, published British, United States, and German government documents, unpublished personal papers of people directing SEC efforts, such as David Lloyd George, Austen Chamberlain, Cecil Harmsworth, Harry Osborne Mance, and John Maynard Keynes, and published memoirs and accounts of persons who were directly or indirectly involved with the SEC. Secondary accounts include biographies and histories or studies of the Peace Conference and of countries affected by its work. Primarily concerned with the first half of 1919, this dissertation focuses on British participation in Inter-allied war-time economic efforts, in post-war Rhineland control, in the creation of the SEC, and in the SEC endeavors of revictualling Germany, providing food and medical relief for eastern Europe, and reconstructing European communications. It concludes with Britain's role in the attempt to convert the SEC into an International Economic Council in the last half of 1919 and with the transfer of SEC duties to the Reparations Commission and to the League of Nations. Through participation in the SEC, Britain led in negotiating the Brussels Agreement and in establishing the Rhineland Commission and the German Economic Commission, reversing French attempts to control the Rhenish economy, preventing French hegemony in Europe, and gaining access to German markets for British goods. Although it failed to achieve its goals of strong eastern European states and access to markets and raw materials there, Britain led in restoration of communications and participated in the relief effort which saved the new states from anarchy in 1919.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:21:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Paulo Friedrich Wilhelm Lowenthal.pdf: 800567 bytes, checksum: 13e41dd30e8aca2753610f3d62d4aa53 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-14 / This paper discusses the constitutional guarantee of due process of law, with emphasis on its substantive dimension. It investigates the applicability of substantive due process within the scope of the Brazilian legal order based on precedents of the Supreme Federal Court, in addition to analyzing the origins and development of the constitutional doctrine of substantive due process in its cradle, meaning the precedents of the U.S. Supreme Court. As an interpretation instrument, identifying and understanding the interpretive phases related to the principle of substantive due process and its dimensions under U.S. Law adds breadth to the study and understanding of the substantive due process doctrine within the scope of the Brazilian legal order / O presente trabalho trata da garantia do devido processo legal, com ênfase na sua dimensão substancial. Empreende uma investigação acerca das origens e do desenvolvimento do devido processo legal substancial, enfocando o ambiente em que o mesmo apresentou seu desenvolvimento mais fecundo: a jurisprudência da Suprema Corte norte-americana. A partir da identificação das diversas fases interpretativas que o princípio do devido processo legal substancial assumiu no direito estrangeiro, a sua compreensão é enriquecida, possibilitando, ao intérprete, uma utilização mais consistente e consciente desse importante ferramental hermenêutico. Objetiva verificar a aplicabilidade, em nosso ordenamento jurídico, do devido processo legal substancial, utilizandose, para tanto, o exame da jurisprudência do Supremo Tribunal Federal

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Submitted by Deidre Raquel Whitfield (deidre.whitfield2015@fgvmail.br) on 2015-01-26T14:28:47Z No. of bitstreams: 1 CIM Thesis Modification - TNR Discrimination in the Workplace - 29 November 2014.pdf: 6213678 bytes, checksum: c71a107036fdb9510410fef984976165 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Janete de Oliveira Feitosa (janete.feitosa@fgv.br) on 2015-01-28T14:08:09Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 CIM Thesis Modification - TNR Discrimination in the Workplace - 29 November 2014.pdf: 6213678 bytes, checksum: c71a107036fdb9510410fef984976165 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2015-02-05T16:21:04Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 CIM Thesis Modification - TNR Discrimination in the Workplace - 29 November 2014.pdf: 6213678 bytes, checksum: c71a107036fdb9510410fef984976165 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-05T16:26:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CIM Thesis Modification - TNR Discrimination in the Workplace - 29 November 2014.pdf: 6213678 bytes, checksum: c71a107036fdb9510410fef984976165 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-10-29 / Discrimination, in its best form, is a hard concept to fathom as an employee or ordinary citizen. In the workplace, there are times when discrimination is necessary due to extenuating circumstances that revolve around the form or act of discrimination. It could be conveyed to save a life or avoid future conflict. However, it must be clearly stated as a written law that the act is lawful. When unlawful discrimination occurs, it stages an entirely different tone, as it is mainly conducted out of malice, hatred, greed, control, or ignorance. Over the last few decades, discrimination has existed in the workplace, although Federal laws mandate that it does not occur. It does not exist in just one geographical area or is country specific, but covers a wide spectrum, linking countries together from their points of view to creating rifts amongst those who are affected and those who are not, not only from a business perspective, but social humanistic relationships as well. This thesis will use quantitative and qualitative data to support discrimination of sexual harassment, race or color, and gender issues, as well as personal experiences, and how it has and will continue to impact businesses if the acts do not cease, permanently. Leadership, from the Presidents and Heads of Countries, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), managers, lowest-ranking supervisor, and employees should make it their personal goal to ensure these issues do not continue or arise in their perspective areas of responsibilities. When employees understand that they are valued, will be taken seriously when reporting acts of discrimination, and that some form of action will be taken, performance and productivity will escalate, and morale will increase in the workplace, resulting in higher productivity and subsequently higher profit margins for the company.