Selecting on your Dependent Variable?

[Professor Gooch]

Barry Friedman has written a book on the Supreme Court and the public. His argument is that the Court follows public opinion for the most part. However, the cases he looks at are limited to salient cases. A participant in a chat on Barry's book raises the issue of selection bias:

[Comment From Adam Liptak, NYTAdam Liptak, NYT: ]
You say your claim is limited to “salient” issues and I wonder if you might say something about what you mean by the term. Does the principle of salience allow you to cherry pick examples that work for your theory?

Tuesday May 18, 2010 2:05 Adam Liptak, NYT
2:05 Barry: what good's a theory, adam, if its author can't cherry pick the cases?

Tuesday May 18, 2010 2:05 Barry
2:06 Barry: i think though that most salient examples fit the theory. but there are exceptions and the real value of the theory is figuring out what is different about them. so, the first amendment is an area in which the court often bucks the tide; think of school prayer, flag burning . . .