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"In October 1989, 11-year old Jacob Wetterling was abducted near his home in the small town of St. Joseph, Minnesota. Despite an unparalleled effort to find him, his whereabouts remained a mystery for 27 years--until his kidnapper, arrested on another charge, confessed to Wetterling's murder and led authorities to his buried remains in September 2016"--

As the 2000 postelection period wore on, media commentators began to refer to it as a great civics lesson. Unfortunately, too much of the commentary focused on the dramatic story unfolding in Florida and the voting systems used by some Florida communities. More important, the 2000 election provides an opportunity to relearn some old lessons about elections and serves to remind us that elections are not simply exercises in preference ordering but responses to an electoral environment defined by state and local jurisdictions. Issues of ballot design, the voting mechanisms used, and the efforts to make voting more convenient are questions of great political importance–questions that cannot be solved by technological fixes alone. Reform is needed, but reform efforts must to be guided by a better understanding of how voters actually relate to the voting process.

This article examines a frequently cited feature of judicial behavior known as the "freshman effect." Recent studies of contemporary justices have concluded that, contrary to the freshman effect hypothesis, newly appointed justices quickly join existing voting blocs. The failure of the empirical evidence to support the original hypothesis has led investigators to speculate on the changes on and off the Supreme Court that may have led to the decline of the freshman effect. By examining the voting behavior of the justices from 1922 to 1953, this article argues that the decline of the freshman effect is more apparent than real. The discrepancy between recent studies and the original hypothesis is clearly the result of methodological differences.

Book Reviewed in this articlePhilip L. Dubois (editor) The Analysis of Judicial Reform (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books; D.C. Heath and Company, 1982); 221 pp.; ISBN 0‐669‐04480‐6; $23.95.Philip L. Dubois (editor) The Politics of Judicial Reform (Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books; D.C. Heath and Company, 1982); 187 pp.; ISBN 0‐669‐04478‐4; $24.95 cloth.

A fresh look at contentious elections in American history.

The Roman god Janus had two faces, looking in opposite directions.
This split appearance is an apt metaphor for the Rehnquist Court's
decisions involving federal-state relations. One face, which has
received much attention over the past decade and a half, is
characterized by the Court's post-1990 decisions concerning state
sovereignty, sovereign immunity, and the reach of Congress's powers
under the Interstate Commerce Clause and the 14th
Amendment. All have had a devolutionary thrust, bolstering state
authority or insulating state institutions against federal law and
regulations. The second, less recognized face is distinguished by
the Court's emerging doctrines concerning federal preemption of
state and local authority. In these cases, the Supreme Court—often
led by members of the new federalist majority—has tilted
surprisingly in favor of federal authority. This article examines
both faces of contemporary judicial policy making on matters of
federalism, with a particular focus on the implications for federal
preemption.