Political background and party affiliation do not directly explain state judges’ rulings.

Evidence

But it is not clear that these views exerted much direct influence on decisions. Take, for example, the Texas school finance case. The opinion of the court was written by Justice Oscar Mauzy, a Democrat who had formerly chaired the state senate’s education committee. One might easily attribute his vote for the reform of school finance to his background and political perspective. Yet, if political backgrounds and views directly determined votes, one would not have expected the other eight members of the Texas Supreme Court—five Democrats and three Republicans—to join Mauzy’s opinion. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1698

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Party affiliation predicts judicial votes across court levels but only imperfectly. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1314; The law rarely dictates outcomes, so judges’ political views decide most cases. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1283; Partisan views do not directly determine state supreme court school finance rulings. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3304 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Partisan views do not directly determine state supreme court school finance rulings. #corroborates (0.92) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3304
• Party affiliation reliably predicts how state court judges decide cases #contradicts (0.88) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 432
• Political selection fills the courts with judges holding established partisan views #complicates (0.75) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2571