Judicial votes systematically divide along liberal and conservative lines

Evidence

The Effects of Attitudes on Decisions Do judges’ personal attitudes influence the outcome of cases? Despite judges’ efforts to banish personal views from their decisions (see Box 8.3), many studies suggest that judges’ attitudes do affect their votes. What is particularly significant is that the judges’ votes often follow clear patterns, dividing along what might be considered liberal and conservative lines. The U.S. Supreme Court furnishes a prime example. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2579

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Judges bring consistent long-established political views to the bench — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2572; Party affiliation reliably predicts how state court judges decide cases — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 432; Party affiliation predicts judicial votes across court levels but only imperfectly. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1314 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Group interaction only marginally changes judges’ established voting patterns #corroborates (0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2623
• Political selection fills the courts with judges holding established partisan views #expands (0.80) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2571
• Veiling debates resist simple liberal-conservative categorization #complicates (0.78) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 777