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Promotion, Social Identity, and Decision Making in the United States Courts of Appeals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Jeffrey Budziak
Jeffrey Budziak*
Affiliation:
Western Kentucky University
*
Contact the author at jeffrey.budziak@wku.edu.
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Abstract

Presidents regularly fill judicial vacancies through promotion. However, the effect of promotion on judicial behavior has been largely unexplored. I theorize that promotion affects judicial behavior through psychological motives associated with social identity. I test this expectation by examining the decisions of promoted court of appeals judges. Promoted judges are less likely to vote to reverse, but this effect fades as appellate court experience increases. The effect is stronger when promoted judges review former colleagues. I argue that social identity theory best explains these patterns and discuss the importance of promotion and social identity for the study of judicial behavior.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , Fall 2016 , pp. 267 - 290
Copyright
© 2016 by the Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.

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Footnotes

The author thanks Larry Baum, Danny Lempert, Steve Wasby, three anonymous reviewers, and the editor for insights and advice on this work. He also thanks Nathan Dalrymple for his research assistance on this project. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2014 annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association. Any errors contained herein are exclusively the responsibility of the author.

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