This proposal joins the information collected in two key judicial public databases: the U.S. Courts of Appeals Database and the U.S. Supreme Court Database. The proposal adds critical information about the subsequent legal history of each case included in the Courts of Appeals database. Adding four simple variables, derived from Shepard's citations, will fill a large gap that currently exists in this database. The project will assess whether each case was appealed to the United States Supreme Court. If so, information regarding that appeal and the citation (both U.S. and Lawyers edition) will be included so that a merger of the Courts of Appeals and Supreme Court databases becomes manageable. Other information added to the Courts of Appeals database will include whether the case was appealed; whether the case was docketed, and the Supreme Court's final decision. The merged database will create a new resource for scholars with information about cases from their inception in the District Courts through resolution with the justices of the Supreme Court. The merger of these databases would provide data for inquiry into areas such as voting alliances, issue transformation and fluidity, reversal rates of circuits, panels, and judges, gate-keeping, agenda formation, litigant behavior, and the relative influence of attitudes at all stages of decision-making. In essence, a new multi-court platform for the study of judicial and litigant behavior will now be available allowing scholars to test theories and concepts at multiple levels of the court system and over time. The final product will be publicly available and housed at the University of Kentucky, along with the original Courts of Appeals database and the most recent updates (1997-2005). This site provides free access to the data in a variety of formats useful to scholars, journalists, and laypeople.
