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Tulane Law School Issues Apology for Errors in Study of Louisiana Supreme Court

Recently, a study from one of my former colleagues at Tulane Law School attracted national attention, including on this blog. The study by Tulane Law Professor Vernon Palmer and Loyola assistant professor of economics John Levendis found a disturbing correlation between contributions and voting on the Court. The Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Pascal F. Calogero Jr., has now released a letter from Tulane Law School Dean Lawrence Ponoroff apologizing to the Court for errors in the study.

The errors were found in “The Louisiana Supreme Court in Question: An Empirical and Statistical Study of the Effects of Campaign Money on the Judicial Function.” The Dean acknowledged that the errors undermined the “reliability of some or all of the authors’ conclusions in the study as published” and expressed “sincere regret” to the Court and to its individual Justices.

The law review has also posted an Erratum that states

“The Louisiana Supreme Court in Question: An Empirical Statistical Study of the Effects of Campaign Money on the Judicial Function published in Volume 82 of the Tulane Law Review at 1291 (2008), was based on empirical data coded by the authors, but the data contained numerous coding errors. Tulane Law Review learned of the coding errors after the publication. Necessarily, these errors call into question some or all of the conclusions in the study as published.”

[Worse yet, a law student now stands accused of stealing one of the shoes of Mr. Rogers]

For the press release on the apology from the Supreme Court, click here.

8 thoughts on “Tulane Law School Issues Apology for Errors in Study of Louisiana Supreme Court”

  1. As a current student, I’m simply glad that I’m not on law review. This will taint not only the authors and the school, but the students who worked on this issue as well – and that will be the only real tragedy of this as far as I’m concerned. The school and the journal decision-makers took their chances. The students I know who are on Law Review are devastated.

    To be fair, though, the students I know who are on law review are devastated when a professor corrects them in class. Maybe their views on the situation are a touch histrionic.

  2. Pingback: Not Such a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood: Tulane Law Student Accused of Stealing Shoe of Mister Rogers « JONATHAN TURLEY

  3. Perhaps there will be a study to study the study and how contributions may have influenced the editorial propriety of the study. Meanwhile it looks like all they need to do is declare “oops” for producing this fish-wrapper of a study – while they cast a shadow of incredulity upon themselves and Tulane. I would insist on Public Service.

  4. Not only did Tulane’s dean of law school apologize, but independent reviews found more than 25% of the Palmer/Levindis data was simply wrong. The odds of a 25% error rate in a “scientific” evenhanded study are 1 out of a million. Perhaps these professors had an agenda???? They should both resign because they are an embarrassment to their schools. Palmer’s nickname is “space”, i.e., outer space, space cadet, spaced out. They have caused irreparable damage to the state of Louisiana at a time when the state is focused on ethics reform. Their methodology was discredited 30 years ago. The true rascals here are the quacky professors.

  5. This has got to be a huge embarrassment for the authors of this study. I would not have wanted to be in the meeting where the Dean was informed of this “minor” error! Ouch!

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