Political representation is a critical issue in American politics, and this includes the judicial branch of government. This project will study political representation in America?s state courts by examining the lives, identities, and behaviors of U.S. state trial court judges. In doing so, this project will analyze who judges are, the influences on their legal decision making, and the consequence and importance of political representation in state trial courts.
The project will employ a mixed-methods approach that includes surveys and interviews of sitting state trial court judges from across the country, in order to understand the backgrounds, group identities, role orientations, and behavior of state trial court judges. Some social science theories provide that judges' backgrounds and identities are not important to explaining judicial behavior, while others hold that judicial behavior is influenced by judges' ideology, age, parental status, race, and gender. The project will test theories about the importance and effects of judicial representation. The project will assess whether background characteristics influence judges' behavior by evaluating whether race, gender, generational cohort, and state judicial selection methods influence judges' consciousness, role orientation, and decision making on the bench. Findings from this research will provide an understanding of political representation in state courts, and how that representation influences judges and their behavior.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
