Christina L. Boyd

Blue digital grid background with University of Michigan ISR logo at the top followed by the headline text "Now On Bluesky" featuring the Bluesky logo and handle "@umisr.bsky.social" at the bottom.

Now on Bluesky: University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research (ISR)! We’re a leading social science research institution, with studies on politics, health, inequality, and economic behavior. Follow for research highlights, behind-the-scenes looks, and insights from our scholars!

#Science

The research provides important insights into criminal adjudications in the U.S. and includes "expanding, testing, and disseminating novel plea-simulation software designed for both research and educational purposes."
2/2

File this under "cool research" . . . In 2019, the NSF funded Wilford's CAREER grant "A system of pleas: Using a role-playing simulation to test plea decision models."
1/

Home | Supreme Court Database The Supreme Court Database is the definitive source for researchers, students, journalists, and citizens interested in the U.S. Supreme Court. The Database contains over two hundred pieces of informat...

Current SCDB flat data files (along with lots more info on the SCDB) are here: scdb.la.psu.edu

Online queryable data--one of my personal favorite features of the modern SCBD--are available through 2023 here: scdb.wustl.edu/analysis.php

4/4

The SCDB contains 247 pieces of info across 6 categories of variables: identifiers, background, chronological, substantive, outcome, and voting/opinion.

3/

The database "is a comprehensive, public, multi-user data resource containing information about every case decided by the United States Supreme Court from its first decision in 1791 to today."

2/

After a little STL tornado delay...let's get back to highlighting some great NSF-sponsored projects.

Today's highlight has significant STL connections and has made multiple generations of scholarship (and journalism and teaching) better: The U.S. Supreme Court Database (SCDB)

1/

Today's NSF Funding Highlight: The many dissertation improvement grants (and equivalents) funded by the NSF. These grants are small in size but help launch research agendas & careers. These awards=a better dissertation in scope and design. #LowCostHighImpact

🤞

The really great news? Avraham continues to update the database today! See papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... and links within.

#LowCostHighImpact 4/4

The data have been frequently used and cited, with an impact that extends from scholars to policymakers to journalists. 3/

The data record things like details on the reform, whether juries are allowed to be informed of it, how state courts responded to the reform, and whether it was amended by the state legislature. 2/

Today's NSF Funding Highlight: In 2006, state tort reform was hugely salient, and that continues to endure. Avraham's "Database of State Tort Law Reforms" yielded a state-by-state database tracking state and DC laws. 1/

Users of the manual include judges (federal and state) but also attorneys, legal scholars, and law students (and likely many more). 4/4 #LowCostHighImpact

Coverage includes important but highly technical topics like DNA identification and genetic testing, expert testimony, statistical models, survey research, economic damages calculation, toxicology, and more. 3/

This project brings together a "committee of 10-12 members representing...legal and scientific/ engineering/ medical communities" to partner with the Federal Judicial Center to develop an updated "science for judges" manual. 2/

Today's NSF Funded Research Highlight: 2021's "Science for Judges-Development of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, 4th Ed." by Mazza. Scientific evidence is everywhere in courts today. NSF funding of scientific evidence evaluation improves court processes & outcomes. 1/

The project uses jury simulations to "examine jurors' and juries' sensitivity to strong versus weak scientific information presented in court" and whether safeguards can improve jurors' inferences from scientific information. 3/3

As the investigators note, jurors are "non-experts who do not possess the necessary tools to differentiate between weak and strong scientific information when making decisions." 2/

NSF Funded Research Highlight of the Day: 2017's "Jurors' Use of Scientific Information" by Neal, Gervais, & Schweitzer. The project "addresses fundamental Qs about how humans reason w/ & make inferences & decisions based on the quality of relevant scientific data" w/ jurors. 1/

I'll feature recent & older grants. Some by people I know, some by folks I have never met. I will start in the law & science area but over time may veer beyond that. I'll use data on grants archived by the NSF, w/ titles, names, and abstracts sourced from there. 4/4

The projects yield publicly-available datasets that go on to serve as the backbone for books & articles & introduce students & policymakers to powerful new ways to think in depth about judges, lawyers, litigants, defendants, policies, & more. 3/

These funded projects are/were often low cost & high impact, tackling significant legal research Qs that help to better society, shape future practices & processes in courts, inform us on public opinion & policy effectiveness, & impact litigants. 2/

In the small way that I can--via posts on here in the coming weeks--I want to highlight/celebrate some important NSF-funded projects (& resulting societal knowledge) over the years. 1/

Useful thread about the restructuring of NSF. Expertise out. Political priorities in. Our science will suffer.

Richard Posner holding a cat

Richard Posner holding his cat. Priceless.

Supreme Qourt of the United States Washington, D. 4. 2054g OFFICE OF PUBLIC INFORMATION For Immediate Release May 9, 2025 For Further Information Contact: Patricia McCabe (202) 479-3211 Retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, David H. Souter, died peacefully yesterday at home in New Hampshire. He was 85 years old. Justice Souter was appointed to the Court by President George H.W. Bush in 1990, and retired in 2009, after serving more than 19 years on the Court. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. said of Justice Souter: "Justice David Souter served our Court with great distinction for nearly twenty years. He brought uncommon wisdom and kindness to a lifetime of public service. After retiring to his beloved New Hampshire in 2009, he continued to render significant service to our branch by sitting regularly on the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for more than a decade. He will be greatly missed." Justice Souter was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, on September 17, 1939. He graduated from Harvard College, from which he received his A.B. After two years as a Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, he received an A.B. in Jurisprudence from Oxford University and an M.A. in 1963. After receiving an LL.B. from Harvard Law School, he was an associate at Orr and Reno in Concord, New Hampshire, from 1966 to 1968, when he became an Assistant Attorney General of New Hampshire. In 1971, he became Deputy Attorney General and in 1976, Attorney General of New Hampshire. In 1978, he was named an Associate Justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire, and was appointed to the Supreme Court of New Hampshire as an Associate Justice in 1983. He became a Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit on May 25, 1990. In addition to hearing cases on the First Circuit, Justice Souter participated in civics education curriculum reform efforts in New Hampshire during his retirement.

From the Supreme Court: Retired Justice David Souter died yesterday at the age of 85.

Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...

The Spencer Foundation is offering rapid response bridge funding for those who lost NSF research grants.

www.spencer.org/grant_types/...

Have I had my own disappointments at the Administrative Office and Judicial Conference not turning over data? Sure.

But the solution is definitely not declaring them them part of the Executive Branch.

A @reuters.com investigation identified 11 judges whose families faced threats after they ruled against President Trump. Many have come after billionaire Elon Musk attacked them on his social media platform.

www.reuters.com/investigatio...