Codebook and Documentation
Data used in analyses in Spill and Ray SPQ paper

Courts of Appeal Case Data

The dataset agcases.sav is an SPSS file containing information about the cases 
where a state appeared before the US Courts of Appeal.  These data are built around a 
core set of data on court cases extracted from the Court of Appeals database developed 
by Songer.  This codebook documents only those new variables added to that dataset, as 
well as other publicly available data merged with the Court of Appeals data.  For a 
description of the variables in the original Court of Appeals database, consult the 
corresponding codebook available from the Program for Law and Judicial Politics of the Michigan State University Department of Political Science.(http://www.polisci.msu.edu/pljp/ctadata.html)

Variables added to Courts of Appeals Dataset

State: Alphabetic state identifier.
       USPS Abbreviations are used. 
State:			Abbreviation:
ALABAMA                         AL
ALASKA                          AK
ARIZONA                         AZ
ARKANSAS                        AR
CALIFORNIA                      CA
COLORADO                        CO
CONNECTICUT                     CT
DELAWARE                        DE
FLORIDA                         FL
GEORGIA                         GA
HAWAII                          HI
IDAHO                           ID
ILLINOIS                        IL
INDIANA                         IN
IOWA                            IA
KANSAS                          KS
KENTUCKY                        KY
LOUISIANA                       LA
MAINE                           ME
MARYLAND                        MD
MASSACHUSETTS                   MA
MICHIGAN                        MI
MINNESOTA                       MN
MISSISSIPPI                     MS
MISSOURI                        MO
MONTANA                         MT
NEBRASKA                        NE
NEVADA                          NV
NEW HAMPSHIRE                   NH
NEW JERSEY                      NJ
NEW MEXICO                      NM
NEW YORK                        NY
NORTH CAROLINA                  NC
NORTH DAKOTA                    ND
OHIO                            OH
OKLAHOMA                        OK
OREGON                          OR
PENNSYLVANIA                    PA
PUERTO RICO                     PR
RHODE ISLAND                    RI
SOUTH CAROLINA                  SC
SOUTH DAKOTA                    SD
TENNESSEE                       TN
TEXAS                           TX
UTAH                            UT
VERMONT                         VT
VIRGINIA                        VA
WASHINGTON                      WA
WEST VIRGINIA                   WV
WISCONSIN                       WI
WYOMING                         WY

Panel data from Auburn Judge dataset

Dempanel:	Proportion of judges on appellate panel with 
Democratic party affiliation.  

Demmaj: Dummy variable 1 if panel of judges has a democratic majority
		       0 otherwise.

Agpanel:	Number of judges on appellate panel who have 
served as state Attorney General.

Nompanel: Panel conservatism with W nominate scores 
(negative = liberal, positive = conservative)

Circuit data from Auburn Judge dataset

Circ_pty:	Proportion of judges on appellate circuit with 
Democratic party affiliation.  

Nominate: circuit conservatism with W nominate scores 
(negative = liberal, positive = conservative)

US Supreme Court variables
Proscdum:	A dummy coded 1 after thomas completes the pro state bloc.
		*Post Rehnquist appointment equals 1 (lagged one year)
		*Post O'Connor equals 2.
		*Post Scalia   equals 3.
		*Post Kennedy  equals 4.
		*Post Thomas   equals 5

Variables built off of case data from Songer dataset

Agstate:	Numeric state id for AG 

Biggest: Dummy variable for largest state (by population) in circuit.

Petition: Is the Attorney General the Petitioner (1) or 
Respondent (0) for this case.  (If AG's are both petitioner 
and respondent, the record appears twice in the dataset, 
once with data on the petitioning AG, once with data on the 
respondent AG.)
 
Winner:  Was the case won by the Petitioner "P" or the 
Respondent "R".

Opinlgth: The total length (in pages) of the opinions in each case.

Complex: Is total length of the opinions in the case 
greater than 6?  If yes, (1), otherwise (0).

Reverse:  Dummy indicating if the circuit reversed the district court in any form or fashion.

Policy: Is this a potential policy making case (dissents or 
reversal of lower court).


Lwrctdir: Code for ideological direction of lower court decision used to create Statideo.

Statideo: indicating the directionality of the state's 
position based upon whether the state is petitioning or 
responding and the direction of the lower court decision.

Agwin:  Dummy variable for outcome of case.  Ruling in 
favor of the state attorney general = 1, otherwise 0.

Criminal:  Is the case a criminal (1) case or not (0).

Pet2:	Inverse of partioner, used to create Crimpet variable.

Crimpet: Interaction term created by criminal * 
petition.  (crimpet=criminal*pet2)

Indiv: Dummy identifies individual appelants- used to create defpris.

Civpris: Dummy for civil cases involving prisoners used to create defpris.

Defpris:Prisoner Apellant are individual criminal appeals or
	 individual civil appeals by prisoners
	code 1  IF ((indiv = 1) 
		AND IF ((geniss = 1)| (civpris=1)))
	code 0 otherwise

Economic: Is the case an economic (1) case or not (0).

Private:	Inadvertent copy of indiv variable
		- used to create pveconap.

Pveconap: 1 for private party economic case appellant, 
	  0 otherwise.

Strgopp: Dummy for strong opponent.  Is the opposing party either:
		the federal government or 
		a private business.

circdc: Dummy variable for D.C. Circuit  

circ1: Dummy variable for First Circuit  

circ2: Dummy variable for Second Circuit  

circ3: Dummy variable for Third Circuit 

circ4: Dummy variable for Fourth Circuit  

circ5: Dummy variable for Fifth Circuit

circ6: Dummy variable for Sixth Circuit

circ7: Dummy variable for Seventh Circuit

circ8: Dummy variable for Eighth Circuit

circ9: Dummy variable for Ninth Circuit

circ10: Dummy variable for Tenth Circuit

circ11: Dummy variable for Eleventh Circuit

agree_p: Ideological agreement between panel and state.  
(Interaction of statideo and nompanel)

agree_c: Ideological agreement between circuit and state.  
(Interaction of statideo and nominate)