What is it about?
Federal judges in the United States have become ideologically polarized over the course of the 20th century. Beginning in the 1960s, Republican judges have become more conservative and Democratic judges more liberal relative to each other. This occurred at the same time that civil rights for African-Americans became a salient issue in American politics and began to change the nature of the parties.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that decisions made by federal judges are affected by their political party and that this effect has changed over time.
Perspectives
I hope readers will find this article interesting because it synthesizes data that it took my co-authors years to collect and explains judicial behavior within the larger context of the historical evolution of political parties in the United States.
Marc Sennewald
University of Houston Charter School
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The polarization of the judiciary, Party Politics, December 2015, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1354068815619324.
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