2013 Articles

Editor's Note: The View From South Lawn

Smith, Jonah Elliot

"The conclusion of our twenty-fifth year of publication invites reflection on the past and future of the Journal of Politics and Society. As I am confident you will agree, this edition demonstrates that we have not yet lost our youthful vigor.
The Fall 2013 journal is among the most interdisciplinary in our long history. Evoking the early days of Helvidius, the guest essay is a piece of legal scholarship coauthored by Roberta Kaplan, counsel to the plaintiff in United States v. Windsor. In among the most important Supreme Court decisions in recent memory, the Court found unconstitutional provisions in the Defense of Marriage Act that prevented married same-sex couples from enjoying some of the benefits of marriage guaranteed by federal law. The essay analyzes some of the central points of Ms. Kaplan’s argument and contends that proof must outweigh prejudice in the court of law.
Yet diverging from our traditional focus on law, political science, history, and economics, the student articles in this edition exemplify the impressive and important undergraduate research taking place in a wide variety of social science disciplines."--from page 3