Elected judges may bend rulings toward voter preferences to secure re-election.

Evidence

The issue is even more salient when one recognizes that the U.S. judicial system has a structure where some judges are elected to the bench. If elected judges are concerned about representing the preferences of voters, and if re-election is a concern, it is easy to see how judicial decisions can stray from the letter of the law. — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 780

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle: the election of judges as an underappreciated structural driver of bias, distinct from individual prejudice.
• XREF: connects to: Impending elections make trial judges sentence criminal defendants more harshly — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 431; Most judicial policymaking gives effect to rather than overrides democratic will. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1500; Lower court judges shaped by local politics can blunt a Supreme Court mandate. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1545 (+2 more)