9509871 Sheldon This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) will support the completion of a political history of the Washington State Court of Appeals. It will analyze how that court evolved from its creation in 1969 and what has accounted for that evolution. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be gathered from court documents, interviews of judges and commissioners, and surveys of law clerks, experienced appellate attorneys and staff personnel. These data will be classified according to how the judges go about their tasks and how they interact with one another. Such data should help explain how the court meets its goals. The aging of the Court's personnel and the efficiency of data gathering during the P.I.'s university sabbatical provide an urgency to the research that justifies a SGER. %%%% This Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) will support the completion of a political history of the Washington State Court of Appeals. It will analyze how that court evolved from its creation in 1969 and what has accounted for that evolution. Both quantitative and qualitative data will be gathered from court documents, interviews of judges and commissioners, and surveys of law clerks, experienced appellate attorneys and staff personnel. These data will be classified according to how the judges go about their tasks and how they interact with one another. Such data should help explain how the court meets its goals. The aging of the Court's personnel and the efficiency of data gathering during the P.I.'s university sabbatical provide an urgency to the research that justifies a SGER. ****
