Party affiliation predicts judicial votes across court levels but only imperfectly.
Evidence
The most comprehensive survey of research on the issue concludes that there are strong connections between judges’ political affiliations and their voting behavior. The connection holds true regardless of whether the courts are federal or state, trial or appellate. Nonetheless, one must be cautious about attributing judicial decisions solely to judges’ political attitudes. The connection between affiliation and voting behavior is not universal: the divisions on some courts surveyed bore no relation to the judges’ partisan affiliations. In addition, the strength of the connection between party and judicial voting varied from issue to issue and over time, sometimes on the same court. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1314
Categorization
- XREF: Directly supports earlier ch8 claim that party affiliation reliably predicts how state judges decide cases, while adding the important caveat of variability across courts and issues. — connects to: Political background and party affiliation do not directly explain state judges’ rulings. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1698; Justices’ ideological outlooks directly produce their voting patterns. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1312; Party affiliation reliably predicts how state court judges decide cases — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 432 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Party influence on judges works through shared values, not direct commands
#expands(0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 605 - Judicial votes systematically divide along liberal and conservative lines
#corroborates(0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2579 - Political selection fills the courts with judges holding established partisan views
#expands(0.80) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2571