Segal, Jeffrey A. 1956- (Jeffrey Allan Segal)

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Segal, Jeffrey A. 1956- (Jeffrey Allan Segal)

PERSONAL:

Born October 3, 1956. Education: State University of New York at Albany, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1978; Michigan State University, M.A., 1980, Ph.D., 1983.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Department of Political Science, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794-4392. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, educator. New York State Assembly, Albany, NY, legislative aide, Rep. Michael Pesce, 1978; Department of Housing and Urban Development, program analyst, 1979; U.S. Department of Labor, program analyst, Vocational Exploration and Development Program, 1980; Michigan State University, East Lansing, department of political science, teaching assistant, 1978-82, research assistant, 1980-81; Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, department of political science, assistant professor, 1982-87, associate professor, 1987-92, professor, 1992-2004, department chair, 2004-07, State University of New York (SUNY) distinguished professor, 2004—. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, fellow, Law and Social Sciences Program, 1988-89; New York University School of Law, New York, NY, global research fellow, Hauser Global Law School Program, 2003-04.

MEMBER:

Mount Sinai Board of Education (trustee, 2002—), American Political Science Association, Midwest Political Science Association (life member), Southern Political Science Association, American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, American Politics Research, Journal of Politics, Judicature, Law and Social Inquiry, Law and Society Review, National Science Foundation, Polity, Western Political Quarterly.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Faculty Achievement Award, Stony Brook University, 1997, 2000, 2002, 2005; Honorary Faculty Member, Golden Key International Honor Society, 2001; several grants from the National Science Foundation.

WRITINGS:

(With Alan I. Abramowitz) Senate Elections, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 1992.

(With Harold J. Spaeth) The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1993.

(With Harold J. Spaeth) Majority Rule or Minority Will: Adherence to Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1999, 2001.

(With Harold J. Spaeth) The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Harold J. Spaeth, Thomas G. Walker, and Lee Epstein) The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments, 3rd edition, CQ Press (Washington, DC), 2003, 4th edition, 2007

(With Harold J. Spaeth and Sara C. Benesh) The Supreme Court in the American Legal System, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

(With Lee Epstein) Advice and Consent: The Politics of Judicial Appointments, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to various journals and periodicals, including American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, New York University Law Review, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jeffrey A. Segal is a writer and educator with a strong background in political science, particularly as it pertains to law and labor development and the U.S. Supreme Court. Born October 3, 1956, he attended the State University of New York at Albany for his undergraduate degree, graduating magna cum laude with a degree in political science in 1978. He continued his education at Michigan State University, earning a master's degree and a doctorate. While still in school, Segal worked at the New York State Assembly as a legislative aide to Representative Michael Pesce. He also served as a program analyst, first for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and then for the U.S. Department of Labor as a part of their Vocational Exploration and Development Program. While in graduate school, he spent time as a teaching assistant in the Michigan State University department of political science. He accepted a position at Stony Brook University in New York after he earned his doctorate. He rose through the department of political science there, starting as an assistant professor and ultimately becoming a State University of New York distinguished professor and department chair in 2004. His areas of research and academic interest include both public and Constitutional law, civil liberties, aspects of judicial process and behavior, and American politics. He has written a number of books and is also a frequent contributor to various periodicals and journals, including the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, National Law Journal, New York University Law Review, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, San Francisco Chronicle, Slate, American Prospect, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He is a frequent presenter at academic and political conferences and participates in a number of organizations and editorial boards, including the Mount Sinai Board of Education, for which he serves as trustee, the American Political Science Association, the Midwest Political Science Association, of which he is a lifetime member, the Southern Political Science Association, the American Journal of Political Science, the American Political Science Review, American Politics Research, the Journal of Politics, Judicature, Law and Social Inquiry, the Law and Society Review, the National Science Foundation, Polity, and Western Political Quarterly.

Senate Elections, which Segal wrote with Alan I. Abramowitz, examines the Senatorial elections process and compares the attitudes toward and pressures on the Senate to similar situations within the House of Representatives. The book culls previous writings and theories from both authors along with new information. Eric M. Uslaner, in a contribution for the American Political Science Review, remarked that "one of the most important insights of the book is that senators face less hospitable partisan environments than do representatives, which accounts for much of the lower reelection rate for members of the upper chamber." However, he did note that there are some inconsistencies in the book, citing that it was unclear whom they intended as the audience for the volume, and that there was very little written about voters given that the book was ostensibly about elections. He concluded, however, that the authors "deserve credit for putting Senate elections in perspective," and that their effort "deserves to find a niche, for there is none like it."

In The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model, which Segal wrote with his frequent collaborator Harold J. Spaeth, and which was published in 1993, proved to be a controversial book from the start. The authors address the way in which the members of the Supreme Court decide cases, where the attitudinal approach refers to making decisions on a case-by-case basis and taking all of the individual details of the case into account, as opposed to adhering strictly to the letter of the law and applying that to the situation. They go on to question what motivates the court as a whole in their decision-making process, and suggest that a strictly attitudinal model is in actuality what holds the most weight. Gregory A. Caldeira, in a contribution for the American Political Science Review, found the authors somewhat one-sided in their opinion and lacking in a true counterexample to hold up as evidence that the court actually follows one model over the other. However, he ultimately concluded that their effort is "a fine and important book," finding it "particularly strong on the legal framework of decision-making in the Court," and noting that they "adopt a clear theoretical stance. No theoretical waffling mars these pages. One may or may not agree with that stance, but it is out there, along with the data to support it."

The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited, published in 2002, returns to the thesis of Segal and Spaeth's earlier effort. In it, they reposition their previous opinion, holding fast to the ideas but making an effort to clarify their points. They also offer a rebuttal against the more- vocal critics of the first version of the book. Roger Handberg, writing for Perspectives on Political Science, remarked: "The empirical basis for the book fundamentally rests on the Supreme Court database and other databases funded by the National Science Foundation. Rarely are such data sources so systematically exploited as these are in this volume."

Segal teamed with Spaeth for several other books, including Majority Rule or Minority Will: Adherence to Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court. A companion of sorts to their previous effort on the Supreme Court, it takes a historic look at the Court's rulings and attempts to determine how heavily the personal beliefs of each justice weighed on the Court's overall decisions. Donald R. Songer, writing for the American Political Science Review, noted that the work "is likely to be evaluated as providing additional strong evidence that the ideological preferences of justices have frequently influenced their decisions throughout our history, but it will not resolve the controversy over whether precedent also influences those votes."

Working with Lee Epstein, Segal wrote Advice and Consent: The Politics of Judicial Appointments, which takes a look at the process of nominating and ultimately appointing members of the Supreme Court. As each of the authors tends to favor a different theory regarding the procedure—strategic versus attitudinal—the book offers more variety of opinion than some of Segal's earlier efforts. Richard L. Pacelle, Jr., in a review for the Law and Politics Book Review Online, concluded: "Epstein and Segal do not advance a new paradigm or reinvent the study of the appointment process. But they do argue that things have not changed as much as conventional wisdom might have us believe."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Political Science Review, December, 1993, Eric M. Uslaner, review of Senate Elections, p. 1013; June, 1994, Gregory A. Caldeira, review of The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model, p. 485; December, 1999, Donald R. Songer, review of Majority Rule or Minority Will: Adherence to Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court, p. 983.

American Prospect, September, 2005, "Always Political," p. 37.

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, July-August, 2003, R.J. Steamer, review of The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited, p. 1988; February 2006, D. Schultz, review of The Supreme Court in the American Legal System, p. 1093.

Federal Bar News & Journal, May, 1994, George Costello, review of The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments, p. 297.

Journal of American Studies, April, 2007, Dean Williams, review of Advice and Consent: The Politics of Judicial Appointments, p. 207.

Journal of Politics, November, 1993, Theodore Rueter, review of Senate Elections, p. 1154; February, 1995, review of The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model, p. 254.

Journal of Supreme Court History, March, 2007, D. Grier Stephenson, Jr., review of Advice and Consent, p. 96.

Law and Politics Book Review, November, 2005, Richard L. Pacelle, review of Advice and Consent, p. 998.

Law and Social Inquiry, spring, 2001, Howard Gillman, review of Majority Rule or Minority Will, p. 465; summer, 2003, review of The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited, p. 878.

Law Librarian, December, 1999, Charles D. Cole, Jr., review of Majority Rule or Minority Will, p. 270.

Legal Studies Forum, spring, 1993, William Haltom, review of The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model, p. 101.

Michigan Law Review, May, 2003, Michael J. Gerhardt, review of The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited, p. 1733.

Perspectives on Political Science, spring 2003, Roger Handberg, review of The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model Revisited, p. 103.

Political Studies, September, 1994, Richard Hodder-Williams, review of The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model, p. 521.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 2006, review of The Supreme Court in the American Legal System.

Santa Clara Law Review, summer, 2006, Brandley W. Joondeph, review of Advice and Consent, p. 737.