Faculty Sponsor: Logan Dancey
Julia Armeli
Julia is a rising junior (‘25) from Metuchen, New Jersey. She is majoring in Government and minoring in Data Analysis. She is interested in quantitative political science research. In her freetime, she enjoys crocheting and playing guitar.
Abstract: In recent years, public evaluations of the Supreme Court have become more negative and politicized, sparking debate over possible reforms. Increasing the number of seats on the Supreme Court is a particularly controversial proposal. This study aims to describe attitudes towards expanding the Supreme Court and explore possible predictors for supporting the reform. Univariate analysis of Wesleyan Survey Lab data from November 2022 revealed that, in comparison to 3 other potential institutional reforms, expanding the Supreme Court was the least popular. Multinomial logistic regression models of Democrat and independent subsets revealed different relationships between interest in politics and attitudes towards expanding the Supreme Court. For both groups, the more often they follow political news, the less likely they are to be “not sure” about the reform. As Democrats follow political news more often, they are more likely to favor expansion; conversely, as independents follow political news more often, they are more likely to oppose expansion. These findings may contribute to the understanding of the relationship between interest in political news and political attitudes.
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