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A Note Concerning Partisan Influences on Trial-Judge Decision Making

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Thomas G. Walker
Thomas G. Walker*
Affiliation:
Emory University
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During the past decade students of the judicial process have devoted considerable resources to an examination of the influence of political party affiliation on judicial decision making. The consequences of this research are substantial due to the key position held by the political party variable in judicial “social background” theory and value questions will necessarily be raised if partisan membership is found to activate certain decisional propensities in a judge's behavior.

Research on the influence of party affiliation on judicial decision making, however, has not been distinguished by clear findings and has left us in a position from which we are unable to generalize to courts not yet studied. Early work on the political party variable concluded that its relationship with decision making did indeed exist. Schubert (1959: 129–142) and Ulmer (1962), in studying workmen's compensation decisions handed down by the Michigan Supreme Court, demonstrated the important role played by partisan politics on that particular tribunal.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , May 1972 , pp. 645 - 650
Copyright
Copyright © 1972 The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

AUTHOR'S NOTE: The author wishes to thank Richard L. Engstrom for his constructive criticism of an earlier version of this note.

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