Black and Owens’ (2016) central claim is that circuit court judges with a large probability of promotion are willing to sacrifice certain preferred policies for a small improvement in the likelihood of promotion to the Supreme Court. Please choose and describe two of the methods Black and Owens theorize circuit court judges use to signal for promotion and use evidence from Kaplan to explain how Neil Gorsuch engaged in this behavior when trying to earn a nomination for Justice Scalia’s seat (1-2 paragraphs). Then use Kaplan to discuss why Brett Kavanaugh did not fit Black and Owens’ criteria, thus failing to make Trump’s Supreme Court nominee shortlist for the first vacancy.
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