Thesis
"A very competent justice": gender and responsive ethos in Supreme Court opinions
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2019
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/101198
Abstract
In the United States Supreme Court, the language used by Justices in their court opinions is individual to the writer and reflective of their judicial ethos. By complicating traditional definitions of ethos, the first female Justices on the court, Sandra Day O'Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, exemplify habits suggestive of a responsive ethos rather than an assured ethos. This responsive ethos builds upon Kathleen J. Ryan, Nancy Myers, and Rebeca Jones' expanded definition of ethos, but acknowledges that though O'Connor and Ginsburg would be operating with an embodied ethos suggestive of marginalization, they also have a great deal of undeniable privilege and power. To study this responsive ethos, computational text analysis methods like machine learning and sentiment analysis display that members of the court with a responsive ethos have distinct writing patterns that demonstrate a hyperawareness and vigilance of their more precarious position. This ethos also varies depending on whether they are writing a majority, dissenting, or concurring court opinion.
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Details
- Title
- "A very competent justice"
- Creators
- Rosamond Elizabeth Thalken
- Contributors
- Matthew Lee Jockers (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- English, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525371801842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis