‘From Pittsburgh to Providence: God, Justice Kennedy and Judicial Behavior’

Holy Cross senior Timothy O’Brien has been selected by the College’s Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies as one of two recipients of the 2005 fall semester’s Maurizio Vannicelli Washington Semester Away program award. He will present his thesis, "From Pittsburgh to Providence: God, Justice Kennedy, and Judicial Behavior" on Nov. 10 at 4 p.m. in the Rehm Library.

While in Washington D.C., O’Brien interned with the Senate Judicial Committee as part of the staff of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). O’Brien conducted research on pending legislative matters pertinent to the federal courts and the Department of Justice, prepared issue and news briefs on legal subjects, and helped Committee staff prepare for upcoming hearings on pending legislation, such as the Patriot Act, and on judicial nominations to the federal judiciary.

O’Brien’s talk will discuss how Supreme Court justices are not merely writing their policy opinions into law. His research shows that factors such as legal precedent can constrain justices, limiting the extent to which they can write their political preferences into law.

"I looked at two cases written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy that deal with Separation of Church and State, and sought to explain why Kennedy reaches two very different conclusions within the same area of constitutional law. The two cases were Allegheny v. ACLU (1989) and Lee v. Weisman (1991). To explain the difference, I used the personal papers of the late Justice Harry A. Blackmun, which offer an 'inside glimpse' of life at the Supreme Court. They include Blackmun's personal recollections of private conversations with other justices, as well as letters that detail some of the private negotiating that forms Court opinions. Using these documents, my paper tries to explain Kennedy's change of view in the two cases.

O’Brien is a political science major and Latin American Studies concentrator from King of Prussia, Pa. He is currently the co-chair of the spring break service trip to Appalachia and an SGA senator-at-large.

The Vannicelli Prize is awarded each semester in honor of the late Holy Cross political science professor and Washington Semester director, Maurizio Vannicelli, for the best research paper produced in the Washington Semester Away program. Because judges deemed two papers as excellent this semester, two winners were chosen (the other is Erin Robert ’06). The recipients of the prize are accorded the opportunity to give a public lecture at the College on their thesis. In addition the winners receive a bound copy of the theses and are presented the book award during commencement exercises.