DOCSLIB.ORG

African American and Latino Representation in the US Courts Of

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
African American and Latino Representation in the US Courts Of University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Political Science ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 8-28-2012 A Different Voice?: African American and Latino Representation in the U.S. Courts of Appeals Jason Morin Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/pols_etds Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Morin, Jason. "A Different Voice?: African American and Latino Representation in the U.S. Courts of Appeals." (2012). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/pols_etds/5 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Political Science ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Jason L. Morin Candidate Political Science Department This dissertation is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication: Approved by the Dissertation Committee: Garbriel R. Sanchez, Ph.D., Chairperson Christine M. Sierra, Ph.D. Michael S. Rocca, Ph.D. Jennifer Diascro, Ph.D. María B. Vélez, Ph.D. i A DIFFERENT VOICE?: AFRICAN AMERICAN AND LATINO REPRESENTATION IN THE U.S. COURTS OF APPEALS by JASON L. MORIN B.A., Political Science, Baylor University, 2002 M.A., International Relations, Baylor University, 2005 M.A., Political Science, University of New Mexico, 2008 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Political Science The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July, 2012 ii DEDICATION To my parents iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are several individuals I would like to thank and recognize. First, I would like to thank my dissertation committee for all of their help and support throughout this process. Most notably, I would like to thank my dissertation chair, Gabriel R. Sanchez, for the time and effort he has spent advising me. Gabe has not only been a wonderful teacher and mentor, but he has also been a dear and loyal friend. I would also like to thank Christine M. Sierra, Michael S. Rocca, Jennifer Diascro, and Maria B. Velez for their willingness to sign onto my dissertation committee. Their comments and feedback have provided valuable insight from a number of different and interesting perspectives. Not only did they help to improve the overall rigor and quality of my dissertation, but they also added to my dissertation’s synthesis of minority and judicial politics. In addition to my dissertation committee, I am also indebted to several individuals at the University of New Mexico. First, I would like to thank Wendy L. Hansen, Juan Pablo Micozzi, and Chris Butler in the Political Science Department for their efforts to improve and refine my quantitative models. I would also like to thank Jillian Medeiros for her helpful suggestions and advice when it came to more theoretical questions about my research. Additionally, I would like to thank the Director and several faculty members at the University of New Mexico Law Library, including Carol A. Parker, Ann Hemmens, and Eileen B. Cohen. The collection of my data has taken years to complete. Since the beginning of this project, I’ve spent countless hours reading and coding appellate-court briefs. Without their knowledge of Westlaw and their willingness to accommodate some of my research requests, the process would have been much more difficult. iv I am also thankful to several friends and colleagues in the Political Science Department at the University of New Mexico. I would especially like to thank Phil Hultquist, Lisa Brant, Grant Burrier, Yann Kerevel, Steve Samford, Alex Adams, and Ron Nikora. Even though their research interest varies greatly from my own, I’ve always appreciated their helpful advice, comments, and suggestions throughout the years. I also acknowledge the financial assistance I received through the University of New Mexico and the Political Science Department. In particular, I would like to thank Mark Peceny, Bill Stanley, and Andrew Schrank for their last-minute efforts to locate research funds when I was in a time of need. As a result, I was able to stay in the Ph.D. program and continue my research. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends. Without their love and support, I would have never been able to complete this dissertation. v A DIFFERENT VOICE?: AFRICAN AMERICAN AND LATINO REPRESENTATION IN THE U.S. COURTS OF APPEALS By Jason L. Morin B.A., Political Science, Baylor University, 2002 M.A., International Relations, Baylor University, 2005 M.A. Political Science, University of New Mexico, 2008 Ph.D., Political Science, University of New Mexico, 2012 ABSTRACT The increase in the number of racial and ethnic minority judges in the federal courtroom has led several scholars to examine the merits of descriptive representation. Advocates of descriptive representation argue that it is important, not only because it can translate into positive attitudes towards government, but also because it can lead to more substantive policy outcomes that can benefit under-represented groups in society. Research focusing on the latter of the two merits of descriptive representation, however, has a tendency to treat racial and ethnic minority judges as monolithic groups. It contends that racial and ethnic minority judges, based on their experiences with discrimination, will be more likely than their white colleagues to vote in favor of the claimant across policy issues considered salient to other racial and ethnic minorities. It also argues that these same differences in individual voting behavior will give racial and ethnic minority judges a distinct advantage, as they can crystallize issues of race, enhance perceptions of policy specialization, and threaten panel unanimity to influence panel outcomes. This research is far from conclusive, however. While research focusing on the behavior of vi African American judges demonstrates mixed results with regards to both individual voting behavior and panel outcomes (Scherer, 2004-2005; Boyd et al., 2010), others find that Latino judges tend to be more conservative than their white colleagues (Manning, 2004). This dissertation attempts to reconcile some of these mixed results and unexpected findings by providing one of the first comprehensive examinations of African American and Latino judicial behavior in the U.S. Courts of Appeals. More specifically, it extends the above arguments by focusing on those conditions that can mediate the individual voting behavior of African American and Latino judges and their ability to influence panel outcomes, which includes both panel rulings and majority opinion writing. While the presence of salient policy issues, such as discrimination cases, provides one condition for understanding African American and Latino judicial behavior, this dissertation contends that “claimant effects” or the presence of co-racial and co- ethnic claimants can enhance perceptions of commonality that motivate African American and Latino judges to vote in favor of the claimant as well as influence panel outcomes. By controlling for these judge-claimant relationships, it is possible to not only test whether previous results are due to the exclusion of “claimant effects,” but also examine whether theory is applicable to both African American and Latino judges across the same set of data. To test my argument, this dissertation focuses exclusively on Title VII employment discrimination cases based on race and ethnicity between 2001 and 2009. The data is unique in that it records both the race and ethnicity of the judge and the claimant. The results from this dissertation show that African American and Latino vii judges are not monolithic in their individual voting behavior. Although African American judges are more likely than non-Black judges to vote in favor of other co-racial claimants, Latino judges are less likely than non-Latino judges to rule in favor of Latino and non-Latino claimants alike. The results also show that African American and Latino judges are not marginalized in the courtroom, as they can influence both individual voting behavior and panel outcomes. While the presence of an African American judge on a panel increases the probability that a panel will rule in favor of a Black claimant, the presence of a Latino judge has the opposite effect by decreasing the likelihood that both Latino and non-Latino claimants will win their appeal. Finally, the results demonstrate that African American and Latino judges are more likely than their white colleagues to write the majority opinion across Title VII employment discrimination cases. Interestingly, though, the likelihood of writing the majority opinion is not conditioned by the formal role of the presiding position. Overall, the results from this dissertation have important implications for the relationship between descriptive representation and substantive outcomes. In the U.S. Courts of Appeals, it has been well documented that Title VII employment discrimination claims are difficult to win on appeal. Minority judges, at least African American judges, can help alleviate some of this difficulty by bringing a different voice to the bench. Different from Latino judges, African American judges can influence their panel colleagues and, at the very minimum, moderate the policy preferences of their panel colleagues. By having more opportunities to write the majority opinion, moreover, African American judges can also set the policy agenda as well as change, strike down, or even create new legal guidelines that may lead to more winnable claims in the future. viii This dissertation also provides an added dimension to the study of descriptive representation by focusing on the more direct effects that African American and Latino judges can have on the claimants who wish to appeal or defend their case in the intermediary courts. By coming to the bench with a different perspective, African American judges can level the playing field by being directly responsive to other Blacks claimants. This is especially important given that Blacks are over-represented in Title VII employment discrimination claims.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • An Empirical Study of the Ideologies of Judges on the Unites States
    JUDGED BY THE COMPANY YOU KEEP: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF THE IDEOLOGIES OF JUDGES ON THE UNITED STATES COURTS OF APPEALS Corey Rayburn Yung* Abstract: Although there has been an explosion of empirical legal schol- arship about the federal judiciary, with a particular focus on judicial ide- ology, the question remains: how do we know what the ideology of a judge actually is? For federal courts below the U.S. Supreme Court, legal aca- demics and political scientists have offered only crude proxies to identify the ideologies of judges. This Article attempts to cure this deficiency in empirical research about the federal courts by introducing a new tech- nique for measuring the ideology of judges based upon judicial behavior in the U.S. courts of appeals. This study measures ideology, not by subjec- tively coding the ideological direction of case outcomes, but by determin- ing the degree to which federal appellate judges agree and disagree with their liberal and conservative colleagues at both the appellate and district court levels. Further, through regression analysis, several important find- ings related to the Ideology Scores emerge. First, the Ideology Scores in this Article offer substantial improvements in predicting civil rights case outcomes over the leading measures of ideology. Second, there were very different levels and heterogeneity of ideology among the judges on the studied circuits. Third, the data did not support the conventional wisdom that Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush appointed uniquely ideological judges. Fourth, in general judges appointed by Republican presidents were more ideological than those appointed by Democratic presidents.
    [Show full text]
  • The Political Ideologies of Law Clerks and Their Judges
    University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics Economics 2016 The olitP ical Ideologies of Law Clerks and their Judges Adam Bonica Adam S. Chilton Jacob Goldin Kyle Rozema Maya Sen Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/law_and_economics Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Adam Bonica, Adam S. Chilton, Jacob Goldin, Kyle Rozema & Maya Sen, " The oP litical Ideologies of Law Clerks and their Judges" (Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics No. 754, 2016). This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Coase-Sandor Working Paper Series in Law and Economics by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Political Ideologies of Law Clerks and their Judges Adam Bonica, Adam Chilton, Jacob Goldin, Kyle Rozema, & Maya Sen∗ February 29, 2016 We study the political ideology of judicial law clerks using a novel dataset that combines the most comprehensive data sources on political ideology and the identity of U.S. federal law clerks. First, we examine the distribu- tion of clerks' ideology and find that clerks tend to be disproportionately liberal, with clerks on lower courts being more liberal on average than clerks for higher courts. Second, we find that judges tend to consistently hire clerks with similar ideologies and that those ideologies track available measures of the judge's own ideology.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyright (C) 2011 Northwestern University School of Law Northwestern University Law Review Winter, 2011 105 Nw. U.L. Rev. 1
    Page 1 Copyright (c) 2011 Northwestern University School of Law Northwestern University Law Review Winter, 2011 105 Nw. U.L. Rev. 1 FLEXING JUDICIAL MUSCLE: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF JUDICIAL ACTIVISM IN THE FEDERAL COURTS Corey Rayburn Yung* BIO: * Associate Professor of Law at The John Marshall Law School. For their helpful comments and suggestions, I would like to thank Frank Cross, Chief Judge Frank H. Easterbrook, Joshua Fischman, Craig Green, Andrew D. Martin, Sandy Olken, Judge Richard A. Posner, Lori Ringhand, David L. Schwartz, Carolyn Shapiro, the participants at the Southeastern Association of Law Schools Empirical Legal Studies Workshop, and the commentators at the Law & Society Associa- tion Annual Meeting and Conference on Empirical Legal Studies. For their diligent research, work, and technical support, I would especially like to thank Robert Breslin, Daniel Calandriello III, Ram- sey Donnell, Sandra Esposito, Christopher Hack, Miguel Larios, Raizel Liebler, Stephanie Lieber- man, and James Yung. Lastly, I want to thank John Corkery, Ralph Ruebner, and The John Mar- shall Law School without whose incredible support this project would not have been possible. [*2] Introduction Immediately following President Obama's nomination of then-Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace Justice Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court, critics branded her a "judicial activist" n1 who would work without regard to the "rule of law." n2 Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay contended that President Obama "couldn't have appointed a more activist judge" and that Sotomayor's activism made her unqualified for a seat on the Court. n3 Karl Rove said the Republicans could win the bat- tle against Sotomayor by "making a clear case against the judicial activism she represents." n4 On the first day of Sotomayor's confirmation hearings, Senator Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, proclaimed her to be an "activist judge that threatens the traditional foundation of the U.S.
    [Show full text]
  • A Selective Review and Analysis of the Panels' 2010-2011 Insurance-Law Opinions
    Digital Commons at St. Mary's University Faculty Articles School of Law Faculty Scholarship 2012 The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit: A Selective Review and Analysis of the Panels' 2010-2011 Insurance-Law Opinions Willy E. Rice St. Mary's University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.stmarytx.edu/facarticles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Willy E. Rice, The court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit: A Selective Review and Analysis of the Panels' 2010-2011 Insurance-Law Opinions, 44 Tex. Tech L. Rev. 733 (2012). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law Faculty Scholarship at Digital Commons at St. Mary's University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Articles by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons at St. Mary's University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT: A SELECTIVE REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF THE PANELS’ 2010-2011 INSURANCE-LAW OPINIONS Willy E. Rice* I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................. 734 II. FIRST-PARTY INSURANCE DISPUTES INVOLVING STATE SUBSTANTIVE LAWS AND STATUTES ................................................. 738 A. First-Party Claims―Tangible Residential and Commercial Property Losses ......................................................................... 738 1. A Review of Pertinent Facts in “Concurrent Causation,” “Additional Payment,” and “Double Recovery” Cases ....
    [Show full text]
  • Federal Judicial Selection from George Bush to Donald Trump
    Notre Dame Law Review Volume 95 Issue 5 Article 3 6-19-2020 A Survivor's Perspective: Federal Judicial Selection from George Bush to Donald Trump Leslie H. Southwick Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndlr Part of the Courts Commons, Judges Commons, and the President/Executive Department Commons Recommended Citation 95 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1847 (2020). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Notre Dame Law Review at NDLScholarship. It has been accepted for inclusion in Notre Dame Law Review by an authorized editor of NDLScholarship. For more information, please contact [email protected]. \\jciprod01\productn\N\NDL\95-5\NDL503.txt unknown Seq: 1 10-JUN-20 15:01 A SURVIVOR’S PERSPECTIVE: FEDERAL JUDICIAL SELECTION FROM GEORGE BUSH TO DONALD TRUMP Leslie H. Southwick* INTRODUCTION Where are we, and how did we get here? Those are not bad questions for seeking a way out of any troubled situa- tion, or for that matter, remaining in a good one. Over recent decades, fed- eral judicial selection controversies are worsening in their frequency and intensity. They distort all three branches of government. My particular con- cern is with federal judicial selection for judgeships below the Olympian heights of those on the United States Supreme Court, namely, the judges on the twelve regional circuit courts of appeals and the ninety-four district courts. The depth of partisan acrimony over judicial confirmations has placed us in the infernal regions, and we seem to be continuing our descent.
    [Show full text]
  • United States Courts of Appeals
    UNITED STATES COURTS OF APPEALS First Judicial Circuit (Districts of Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, and Rhode Island).—Chief Judge: Jeffrey R. Howard. Circuit Judges: Juan R. Torruella; Sandra L. Lynch; O. Rogeriee Thompson; William J. Kayatta, Jr.; David J. Barron. Senior Circuit Judges: Bruce M. Selya; Michael Boudin; Norman H. Stahl; Kermit V. Lipez. Circuit Executive: Susan J. Goldberg (617) 748–9614. Clerk: Margaret Carter (617) 748–9057, John Joseph Moakley U.S. Courthouse, One Courthouse Way, Suite 2500, Boston, MA 02210. Second Judicial Circuit (Districts of Connecticut, New York [Eastern, Northern, Southern,´ and Western], and Vermont).—Chief Judge: Robert A. Katzmann. Circuit Judges: Jose A. Cabranes; Susan L. Carney; Denny Chin; Christopher F. Droney; Peter W. Hall; Dennis Jacobs; Robert A. Katzmann; Debra A. Livingston; Raymond J. Lohier, Jr.; Rosemary S. Pooler; Reena Raggi. Senior Judges: Giudo Calabresi; Amalya L. Kearse; Pierre N. Leval; Gerard E. Lynch; Jon O. Newman; Barrington D. Parker, Jr.; Robert D. Sack; Chester J. Straub; John M. Walker, Jr.; Richard C. Wesley; Ralph K. Winter. Circuit Executive: Karen Greve Milton. Clerk: Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe (212) 857–8700, Thurgood Marshall United States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, New York, NY 10007–1581. Third Judicial Circuit (Districts of Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virgin Islands).— Chief Judge: D. Brooks Smith. Circuit Judges: Theodore A. McKee; Thomas L. Ambro; Michael A. Chagares; Kent A. Jordan; Thomas M. Hardiman; Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr.; Thomas I. Vanaskie; Patty Shwartz; Cheryl Ann Krause; L. Felipe Restrepo; Stephanos Bibas. Senior Judges: Walter K. Stapleton; Morton I. Greenberg; Anthony J.
    [Show full text]
  • On Not Making Law
    GULATI.FMT 04/01/99 5:01 PM ON NOT MAKING LAW MITU GULATI* AND C.M.A. MCCAULIFF** I INTRODUCTION Consider the following scenario: A three-judge panel on a federal court of appeals has before it a complex se- curities law case. Each of the three judges on the panel is a former criminal law- yer. Among the three, the only experience any one of them has with securities law is a single course on the subject that one of them took thirty years ago. The central issue in the case is both difficult and close. Although there is no useful case law on point, the issue frequently arises both in litigation and in prac- tice. Many cases have involved the issue, but each court has found an alternative basis to decide the case before it, leaving the issue unresolved. Presently, at least two district court cases that raise a similar issue are on appeal in other circuits. If the panel tackles the issue squarely, its decision is likely to affect both the pending litigation in those other cases and the behavior of corporate actors in future transactions. The judges do not have strong feelings about how the case should come out. Each side has made out a strong case. The judges are, however, concerned about the amount of time and effort that writing an opinion in this case is likely to take. Given the lack of expertise, the judges are each concerned about the errors they might make in an opinion. Errors here are likely to be costly not only because the opinion will be binding precedent in this circuit, but also because the opinion is likely to influence other circuits.
    [Show full text]
  • A Typology of Judging Styles
    Copyright 2013 by Northwestern University School of Law Printed in U.S.A. Northwestern University Law Review Vol. 107, No. 4 A TYPOLOGY OF JUDGING STYLES Corey Rayburn Yung ABSTRACT—This Article calls into question the fundamental premises of models of judicial decisionmaking utilized by legal and political science scholars. In the place of the predominant theories, I offer a new approach to understanding judicial behavior which recognizes judicial heterogeneity, multidimensional behavior, and interconnectedness among judges at different levels within the judiciary. The study utilizes a unique dataset of over 30,000 judicial votes from eleven courts of appeals in 2008, yielding statistically independent measures for judicial activism, ideology, independence, and partisanship. Based upon those four metrics, statistical cluster analysis is used to identify nine statistically distinct judging styles: Trailblazing, Consensus Building, Stalwart, Regulating, Steadfast, Collegial, Incrementalist, Minimalist, and Error Correcting. These judicial style types offer a fuller account of judicial behavior than any of the prior models utilized by scholars. AUTHOR—Corey Rayburn Yung is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Kansas School of Law. For their helpful comments and suggestions, I would like to thank Ryan C. Black, Christina L. Boyd, Edward K. Cheng, Judge Frank H. Easterbrook, Theodore Eisenberg, Lee Epstein, Joshua B. Fischman, Tracey E. George, Raizel Liebler, James T. Lindgren, Lumen N. Mulligan, Judge Richard A. Posner, David L. Schwartz, and the participants at the Northwestern University School of Law & University of Chicago Law School Workshop on Judicial Behavior, Junior Faculty Works-in-Progress Workshop at Washington University School of Law, Conference on Empirical Legal Studies, Federal Courts Junior Faculty Workshop, University of Iowa College of Law Faculty Workshop, New Voices in Civil Justice Workshop at Vanderbilt Law School, and Michigan State University College of Law Junior Faculty Workshop.
    [Show full text]
  • Judge Reynaldo G
    Winner of the American Association for State and Local History’s Excellence in History Award Columns Leads Features Message from the President Viva La Huelga! The Starr County Latino/a Pioneers in the Texas Judiciary By Cynthia K. Timms Strike, Chicanos, Texas Rangers and Building Bridges for Future Generations In this issue, we again By Victor A. Flores focus on contributions the Landmark Supreme Court Decision Despite all doubt and risk, pioneers of the Latinx community have an intrinsic desire to take new to the development of in Medrano v. Allee ground, move forward, and expand. the courts and legal By Stephen P. Pate Read more... profession in Texas. More than fifty years Cynthia K. Timms Read more... later, few remember the rise of the Chicano Judge Reynaldo G. Garza movement in America. Executive Director’s Page Read more... Striking worker •The First Federal Judge of Mexican By Sharon Sandle Despite the fact that the American Descent• name “Texas” originated Mexicans in the Houston Courts, By David Garza and Reynaldo G. from “Tejas,” the Caddo Garza, III (Trey) 1906-1926 This article is written on word meaning “friend,” By Ramiro Contreras the many diverse people the sixtieth anniversary This article surveys the experiences of of Judge Garza’s appoint- who have inhabited Mexicans in Houston’s civil courtrooms, Texas have not always Sharon Sandle ment as a Federal Judge. providing a deeper understanding of Read more... lived together peacefully. Read more... the population’s early history. Judge Garza Read more... Fellows Column By David J. Beck The Taming Texas program is back in the classrooms this year and will be taught as part of the “Stories of Texas” summer camp at the Bryan Museum in David J.
    [Show full text]
  • Is the Jury Still Out?: a Case for the Continued Viability of the American Jury
    IS THE JURY STILL OUT?: A CASE FOR THE CONTINUED VIABILITY OF THE AMERICAN JURY The Honorable Jennifer Walker Elrod* I. ................................................................................................................ 305 II. .............................................................................................................. 309 III. ............................................................................................................. 317 IV. ............................................................................................................. 322 V. .............................................................................................................. 325 VI. ............................................................................................................. 331 Thank you for your gracious invitation to Lubbock and to the Texas Tech University School of Law. I am honored to be able to speak to you today about the jury. As I will explain, the American jury system is under assault—as a practical matter, because it is being used to settle disputes less and less, and as a theoretical one, as it has become commonplace to deride the very idea of the jury. After all, why leave justice to the untrained public when almost every other trade has been the subject of increasing professionalism, when almost none of our global competitors have chosen the jury system for their own,1 and when our nation’s business leaders seem to have chosen alternatives to the jury system?2 As an unabashed defender of the jury, I have come here today to set out the contrary case, to remind us why the jury is worth fighting for. This is a topic that is near and dear to my heart. Although I am now an appellate judge, separated from the hustle and bustle of the trial court, I started out as a trial judge. During the five and a half years I heard trials, I worked with juries almost daily. As a result of that experience, I developed a deep appreciation for their wisdom and for their important role as a check on the power of government.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cost of Partisan Politics on Minority Diversity of the Federal Bench
    Only Skin Deep?: The Cost of Partisan Politics on Minority Diversity of the Federal Bench ∗ SYLVIA R. LAZOS VARGAS INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................1423 I. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO THE JUDICIARY FROM DIVERSITY?................1426 A. Descriptive Diversity ........................................................................1428 B. Symbolic Diversity............................................................................1430 C. Viewpoint Diversity ..........................................................................1432 II. FEDERAL COURTS ARE BECOMING MORE DESCRIPTIVELY DIVERSE,YET MINORITY JUDGES REMAIN UNDERREPRESENTED......................................1437 A. African American Diversity on the Federal Bench...........................1437 B. Latina/o Diversity on the Federal Bench..........................................1438 C. Asian Pacific Islander Diversity on the Federal Bench....................1439 III. CONTRASTING POLITICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL MOTIVATIONS IN DIVERSIFYING THE BENCH .................................................................................................1439 A. President Bill Clinton: A Judiciary that “Looks Like America” ......1440 B. President George W. Bush: First “Strict Constructionists” and then Diversity ...........................................................................................1442 IV. HOW THE CONFIRMATION “WARS”SHAPE WHAT KIND OF MINORITIES SERVE ON THE BENCH............................................................................................1448
    [Show full text]
  • Choosing the Next Supreme Court Justice: an Empirical Ranking of Judge Performance
    ARTICLES CHOOSING THE NEXT SUPREME COURT JUSTICE: AN EMPIRICAL RANKING OF JUDGE PERFORMANCE STEPHEN J. CHOI* & G. MITU GULATI** ABSTRACT The judicial appointments process has grown increasingly frustrating in recent years. Both sides claim that their candidates are the “most * Roger J. Traynor Professor, U.C. Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall). ** Professor of Law, Georgetown University. Kindly e-mail comments to [email protected] and [email protected]. Erin Dengan, Jennifer Dukart, Édeanna Johnson-Chebbi, Alice Kuo, Margaret Rodgers, and Rishi Sharma provided research assistance. Kimberly Brickell deserves special thanks for her work. Aspects of this draft benefited from discussions with Alex Aleinikoff, Ian Ayres, Scott Baker, Barbara Banoff, Devon Carbado, Lee Epstein, Tracey George, Prea Gulati, Vicki Jackson, Mike Klarman, Kim Krawiec, Paul Mahoney, Kaleb Michaud, Greg Mitchell, Ed Kitch, Un Kyung Park, Jim Rossi, Jim Ryan, Mark Seidenfeld, Howard Shelanski, Paul Stefan, Eric Talley, and George Triantis. For comments on the draft itself, we are grateful to Michael Bailey, Suzette Baker, Bill Bratton, James Brudney, Brannon Denning, Dan Farber, Phil Frickey, Michael Gerhardt, Steve Goldberg, Linc Kaplan, Joe Kennedy, Vikram Khanna, Pauline Kim, Don Langevoort, Jim Lindgren, Bill Marshall, Steve McBundy, Eric Mueller, Jeff Rachlinksi, Judith Resnik, Steve Salop, Michael Seidman, Peter Seigelman, Keith Sharfman, Pat Shin, Michael Solimine, Larry Solum, Gerry Spann, Nancy Staudt, Mark Tushnet, David Vladeck, David Walker, Robin West, Kathy Zeiler, Arnold Zellner, Todd Zywicki, and participants at workshops at Berkeley, Boston University, Florida State, Georgetown, Virginia, and UNC-Chapel Hill. Given the unusually large number of people who have e-mailed us with comments on this project, it is likely that there are some who we have inadvertently failed to thank.
    [Show full text]