Comparing Supreme Court Networks Temporally: From the Warren Court to the Roberts Court

“I decided to look at the Network of Supreme Court Justices and the schools they hire from through which Court it was. The Supreme Court is often broken up into different eras based on the Chief Justice. I examined the networks for the Warren, Burger, Rehnquist, and Roberts Courts. I chose to start with the Warren Court because it is considered the begining of the modern court era and that is also when the Justices started to utilize clerks more meaning they hired more for each term. Based on the initial graphs there is one really interesting event that stands out. You can observe Harvard moving inwards and becommining more central to the network over time. It begins on the outer edges during the Warren Court and moves to the center by the time of the Rehnquist Court. Other elite schoos show a similar path. This seems to suggest that the Supreme Court is becomming more elite over time.”

Warren Court(1953-1969) - Nodes weighted based on centrality.

netW <- simplify(Warren.ig, remove.multiple = F, remove.loops = T)
degW <- degree(netW, mode = "all")
V(netW)$size <- degW*.04
E(netW)$width <- E(netW)$weight/2
E(netW)$arrow.size <.2

logical(0)

E(netW)$edge.color <- "gray80"
graph_attr(netW, "layout") <- layout_with_lgl
include_graphics("Warren.png")

Burger Court(1969-1986) Nodes weighted based on centrality.

netB <- simplify(Burger.ig, remove.multiple = F, remove.loops = T)
degB <- degree(netB, mode = "all")
V(netB)$size <- degB*.04
E(netB)$width <- E(netB)$weight/2
E(netB)$arrow.size <.2

logical(0)

E(netB)$edge.color <- "gray80"
graph_attr(netB, "layout") <- layout_with_lgl
include_graphics("Burger.png")

Rehnquist Court(1987-2005) Nodes weighted based on centrality.

netR <- simplify(Rhenquist.ig, remove.multiple = F, remove.loops = T)
degR <- degree(netR, mode = "all")
V(netR)$size <- degR*.04
E(netR)$width <- E(netR)$weight/2
E(netR)$arrow.size <.2

logical(0)

E(netR)$edge.color <- "gray80"
graph_attr(netR, "layout") <- layout_with_lgl
include_graphics("Rehnquist.png")

Roberts Court(2005-Current) Nodes weighted based on centrality.

netRB <- simplify(Roberts.ig, remove.multiple = F, remove.loops = T)
degRB <- degree(netRB, mode = "all")
V(netRB)$size <- degRB*.04
E(netRB)$width <- E(netRB)$weight/2
E(netRB)$arrow.size <.2

logical(0)

E(netRB)$edge.color <- "gray80"
graph_attr(netRB, "layout") <- layout_with_lgl
include_graphics("Roberts.png")