{"id":23034,"date":"2021-04-01T01:48:44","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T05:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/?p=23034"},"modified":"2021-04-01T01:48:48","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T05:48:48","slug":"how-connected-are-the-voting-behaviors-between-a-supreme-court-justices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentwork.prattsi.org\/infovis\/visualization\/how-connected-are-the-voting-behaviors-between-a-supreme-court-justices\/","title":{"rendered":"How connected are the voting behaviors between a Supreme Court justices?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

INTRODUCTION<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since 1946, the Supreme Court database<\/a> has been tracking all the legal details and nuances related to each case brought forth to the Supreme Court. Details, such as cases organized by docket or cases organized by issue \/ legal provision, are meticulously tracked through the database\u2019s code book <\/a>and each value is encoded to match the actual outcomes of each case\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For this report, I wanted to review a dataset on case-centered data and then analyze the cases organized by the Supreme Court Citation. My chosen dataset focused on consolidated cases (those with multiple dockets) or cases with multiple issues or legal provisions and their outcomes per justice. This datasets shows various fields related to how the justice\u2019s vote differed from the majority, the case\u2019s name, and much more. I wanted to see a visual overview of how connected each justice\u2019s voting behavior is in reference to their chief\u2019s final vote per case. Additionally I wanted to see how connected other Supreme Court chiefs\u2019 voting behaviors were between each other as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DISCUSSION<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Since this dataset\u2019s visualization analyzes social connectedness, Moreno\u2019s sociograms<\/a> were the first designs that popped into my mind. His visual representations of elementary school children\u2019s relationships within each grade level\u2019s class were simple in their visual communication; a reader can easily identify the edges within the class structure. Then the visualizations\u2019 minimal aesthetic doesn\u2019t distract the reader\u2019s attention, rather it emphasizes each child\u2019s position in the network using color, label sizing, and network structure. One leaves his design feeling more informed about his research and receptive to the social workings of each class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Moreno’s Sociograms<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As I used Moreno\u2019s network design and aesthetic as inspirations, I was interested in exploring experimentations with color, such gradients and color palettes. My chosen dataset may relate to politics or patriotic tones, but I wanted to represent the data\u2019s connections in a more interactive and playful manner, similar to the below visualizations. Each one plays with color without distracting the viewer\u2019s attention from the underlying purpose of what it\u2019s communicating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n