Hostname: page-component-84b7d79bbc-g78kv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-29T08:21:09.084Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Note Concerning Partisan Influences on Trial-Judge Decision Making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Thomas G. Walker
Thomas G. Walker*
Affiliation:
Emory University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

During the past decade students of the judicial process have devoted considerable resources to an examination of the influence of political party affiliation on judicial decision making. The consequences of this research are substantial due to the key position held by the political party variable in judicial “social background” theory and value questions will necessarily be raised if partisan membership is found to activate certain decisional propensities in a judge's behavior.

Research on the influence of party affiliation on judicial decision making, however, has not been distinguished by clear findings and has left us in a position from which we are unable to generalize to courts not yet studied. Early work on the political party variable concluded that its relationship with decision making did indeed exist. Schubert (1959: 129–142) and Ulmer (1962), in studying workmen's compensation decisions handed down by the Michigan Supreme Court, demonstrated the important role played by partisan politics on that particular tribunal.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , May 1972 , pp. 645 - 650
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 The Law and Society Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The author wishes to thank Richard L. Engstrom for his constructive criticism of an earlier version of this note.

References

ADAMANY, David W. (1969) “The Party Variable in Judges' Voting: Conceptual Notes and a Case Study,” 63 American Political Science Review 57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
BOWEN, Don R. (1965) “The Explanation of Judicial Voting Behavior from Sociological Characteristics of Judges.” Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University.Google Scholar
DOLBEARE, Kenneth M. (1969) “Federal District Courts and Urban Public Policy: An Exploratory Study (1960-1967),” in Grossman, Joel and Tanenhaus, Joseph (eds.) Frontiers of Judicial Research. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
GOLDMAN, Sheldon (1965) “Characteristics of Eisenhower and Kennedy Appointees to the Lower Federal Courts,” 18 Western Political Quarterly 755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GOLDMAN, Sheldon (1966) “Voting Behavior on the United States Courts of Appeals, 1961-1964,” 60 American Political Science Review 374.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
GROSSMAN, Joel B. (1966) “Social Backgrounds and Judicial Decision-Making,” 79 Harvard Law Review 1551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HAYS, William L. (1963) Statistics. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
NAGEL, Stuart S. (1961a) “Political Party Affiliation and Judges' Decisions,” 55 American Political Science Review 843.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
NAGEL, Stuart S. (1961b) “Unequal Party Representation on State Supreme Courts,” 45 Journal of the American Judicature Society 62.Google Scholar
NAGEL, Stuart S. (1962) “Testing Relations between Judicial Characteristics and Judicial Decision-Making,” 15 Western Political Quarterly 425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SCHMIDHAUSER, John R. (1959) “The Justices of the Supreme Court: a Collective Portrait,” 3 Midwest Journal of Political Science 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SCHMIDHAUSER, John R. (1962) “Stare Decisis, Dissent, and the Background of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States,” 14 University of Toronto Law Journal 194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SCHUBERT, Glendon (1959) Quantitative Analysis of Judicial Behavior. Glencoe: The Free Press.Google Scholar
ULMER, S. Sidney (1962) “The Political Party Variable in the Michigan Supreme Court,” 11 Journal of Public Law 352.Google Scholar
VINES, Kenneth N. (1964) “Federal District Judges and Race Relations Cases in the South,” 26 Journal of Politics 337.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WHITAKER, Steve (1969) “Review of Donald S. Strong's Negroes, Ballots and Judges: National Voting Rights Legislation in the Federal Courts,” 63 American Political Science Review 573.Google Scholar