9602172 Songer The Appeals Court Data Base Project created an extensive data set to facilitate the empirical analysis of the votes of the judges and the decisions of the United States Courts of Appeals. Data on a broad range of variables of theoretical significance to law and social science researchers were coded. A major goal in the construction of the data base was to provide data over a sufficiently long period of time to encourage significant longitudinal studies of the Courts of Appeals. Thus, the data base was designed to code a random sample of cases for the period 1925 - 1988. The Appeals Court Data Base Project, as originally conceived, is nearing completion. The present proposal seeks to fund extension of the appeals court data base to bring it as close to the present as possible. Such an extension would greatly enhance the utility of the data base for research and teaching by those who study the judiciary. %%%%
