Name:	Katrina Hoch katrina@ucsd.edu
Dissertation Abstract :	Given the importance of government transparency for American democracy, why is the judiciary often exempted from this ideal? Why does law invert the expectation of transparency? And does this indicate that transparency has an ambivalent relationship to democracy? I address these questions by looking at four case studies: Supreme Court confirmations, the debate over cameras in the courtroom, the trend towards settling out of court, and the “unpublication” of judicial opinions. For each case, I analyze media coverage, legislation, policy documents and legal commentary. This study suggests that the ideal of government transparency is complicated by its ambivalent relationship to rational debate, its entanglement with issues of personal privacy, and its contingence on the intelligibility of information. Advanced to candidacy June 2004. Qualifying paper titles: “Associations and Democracy” and “Twentieth Century Supreme Court Confirmations: Arguments and Participants.” Dissertation title: The Politics of Visibility: Transparency, Secrecy, and the United States Judiciary. Expected completion May 2008. Advisor: Robert Horwitz.  Committee Members: Michael Schudson, Daniel Hallin, Valerie Hartouni (all in Communication), Alan Houston (Political Science), Michael Belknap (History and California Western School of Law).