Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T05:17:34.023Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Panel Effects and Opinion Crafting in the US Courts of Appeals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2022

Rachael K. Hinkle
Rachael K. Hinkle*
Affiliation:
University at Buffalo
*
Contact the author at [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Scholars have observed that federal circuit judges’ voting behavior can be influenced by even a single colleague on a three-judge panel. I explore whether such forces extend beyond voting to affect how circuit judges use binding precedent to develop circuit law, by examining whether the role of ideology is dampened when a judge writes for a panel that includes one or two colleagues from a different party. Using an original data set of published search-and-seizure opinions from 1953 to 2010, I uncover evidence that panel effects do extend beyond voting to influence opinion drafting as well.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Law and Courts , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , Fall 2017 , pp. 313 - 336
Copyright
© 2017 by the Law and Courts Organized Section of the American Political Science Association. All rights reserved.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This article is funded by the National Science Foundation (Law and Social Science, SES-1155066). I would like to thank Wendy Martinek for her helpful comments on an early version of this article. Replication data and code are available from the author.

References

Aldisert, R. J. 1989. “Precedent: What It Is and What It Isn’t: When Do We Kiss It and When Do We Kill It?” Pepperdine Law Review 17 (3): 605–36.Google Scholar
Barnett, S. R. 2002. “From Anastasoff to Hart to West’s Federal Appendix: The Ground Shifts Under No-Citation Rules.” Journal of Appellate Practice and Process 4 (1): 1–26.Google Scholar
Barrow, D. J., and T. G. Walker. 1988. A Court Divided: The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Politics of Judicial Reform. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beim, D., Hirsch, A. V., and Kastellec, J. P. 2014. “Whistleblowing and Compliance in the Judicial Hierarchy.” American Journal of Political Science 58 (4): 904–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beim, D., Hirsch, A. V., and Kastellec, J. P. 2016. “Signaling and Counter-signaling in the Judicial Hierarchy: An Empirical Analysis of En Banc Review.” American Journal of Political Science 60 (2): 490–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beim, D., and J. P. Kastellec. 2014. “The Interplay of Ideological Diversity, Dissents, and Discretionary Review in the Judicial Hierarchy: Evidence from Death Penalty Cases.” Journal of Politics 76 (4): 1074–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berdejó, C. 2013. “It’s the Journey, Not the Destination: Judicial Preferences and the Decision-Making Process.” University of Louisville Law Review 51 (2): 271–321.Google Scholar
Black, R. C., and J. F. Spriggs II. 2008. “An Empirical Analysis of the Trends, Determinants, and Effects of the Length of Majority Opinions of the U.S. Supreme Court.” Houston Law Review 45 (3): 621–82.Google Scholar
Black, R. C. 2013. “The Citation and Depreciation of U.S. Supreme Court Precedent.” Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 10 (2): 325–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Borooah, V. K. 2002. Logit and Probit: Ordered and Multinomial Models. Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences 138. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowie, J. B., D. R. Songer, and J. Szmer. 2014. The View from the Bench and Chambers: Examining Judicial Process and Decision Making on the US Courts of Appeals. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.Google Scholar
Boyd, C. L., Epstein, L., and Martin, A. D. 2010. “Untangling the Causal Effects of Sex on Judging.” American Journal of Political Science 54 (2): 389–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brenner, S., and H. J. Spaeth. 1986. “Issue Specialization in Majority Opinion Assignment on the Burger Court.” Western Political Quarterly 39 (3): 520–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, E. K. 2008. “The Myth of the Generalist Judge: An Empirical Analysis of Opinion Specialization in the Federal Courts of Appeals.” Stanford Law Review 61 (3): 519–72.Google Scholar
Choi, S. J., and G. M. Gulati. 2007. “Trading Votes for Reasoning: Covering in Judicial Opinions.” Southern California Law Review 81 (4): 735–79.Google Scholar
Clark, T. S., and B. Lauderdale. 2010. “Locating Supreme Court Opinions in Doctrine Space.” American Journal of Political Science 54 (4): 871–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cross, F. B., J. F. Spriggs II, T. R. Johnson, and P. J. Wahlbeck. 2010. “Citations in the U.S. Supreme Court: An Empirical Study of Their Use and Significance.” University of Illinois Law Review, no. 2:489–576.Google Scholar
Cross, F. B., and E. H. Tiller. 1998. “Judicial Partisanship and Obedience to Legal Doctrine: Whistleblowing on the Federal Courts of Appeals.” Yale Law Journal 107 (7): 2155–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, L., Landes, W. M., and Posner, R. A. 2011. “Why (and When) Judges Dissent: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis.” Journal of Legal Analysis 5 (1): 101–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, L., Landes, W. M., and Posner, R. A. 2013. The Behavior of Federal Judges. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Epstein, L., A. D. Martin, J. A. Segal, and C. Westerland. 2007. “The Judicial Common Space.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 23 (2): 303–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farhang, S., J. P. Kastellec, and G. J. Wawro. 2015. “The Politics of Opinion Assignment and Authorship on the U.S. Court of Appeals: Evidence from Sexual Harassment Cases.” Journal of Legal Studies 44 (1): S59–S85.Google Scholar
Farhang, S., and G. Wawro. 2004. “Institutional Dynamics on the U.S. Court of Appeals: Minority Representation under Panel Decision Making.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 20 (2): 299–330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fischman, J. B. 2015. “Interpreting Circuit Court Voting Patterns: A Social Interactions Framework.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 31 (4): 808–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerhardt, M. J. 2008. The Power of Precedent. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giles, M. W., V. A. Hettinger, and T. Peppers. 2001. “Picking Federal Judges: A Note on Policy and Partisan Selection Agendas.” Political Research Quarterly 54 (3): 623–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haire, S. B., L. P. Moyer, and S. Treier. 2013. “Diversity, Deliberation, and Judicial Opinion Writing.” Journal of Law and Courts 1 (2): 303–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansford, T. G., and J. F. Spriggs II. 2006. The Politics of Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinkle, R. K. 2015. “Legal Constraint in the U.S. Courts of Appeals.” Journal of Politics 77 (3): 721–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinkle, R. K. 2016. “Strategic Anticipation of En Banc Review in the U.S. Courts of Appeals.” Law and Society Review 50 (2): 383–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hume, R. J. 2009. “The Impact of Judicial Opinion Language on the Transmission of Federal Circuit Court Precedents.” Law and Society Review 43 (1): 127–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, C. A. 1979. “Lower Court Reactions to Supreme Court Decisions: A Quantitative Examination.” American Journal of Political Science 23 (4): 792–804.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kastellec, J. P. 2007. “Panel Composition and Judicial Compliance on the U.S. Courts of Appeals.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 23 (2): 421–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kastellec, J. P. 2011. “Hierarchical and Collegial Politics on the U.S. Courts of Appeals.” Journal of Politics 73 (2): 345–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kastellec, J. P. 2013. “Racial Diversity and Judicial Influence on Appellate Courts.” American Journal of Political Science 57 (1): 167–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, P. T. 2009. “Deliberation and Strategy on the United States Courts of Appeals: An Empirical Exploration of Panel Effects.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 157 (5): 1319–81.Google Scholar
Klein, D., and D. Morrisroe. 1999. “The Prestige and Influence of Individual Judges on the U.S. Courts of Appeals.” Journal of Legal Studies 28 (2): 371–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Landes, W. M., L. Lessig, and M. E. Solimine. 1998. “Judicial Influence: A Citation Analysis of Federal Courts of Appeals Judges.” Journal of Legal Studies 27 (2): 271–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lax, J. R. 2007. “Constructing Legal Rules on Appellate Courts.” American Political Science Review 101 (3): 591–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, E. G., III. 2003. “Horizontal Stare Decisis on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.” Kentucky Law Journal 92 (3): 767–1083.Google Scholar
Maliniak, D., R. Powers, and B. F. Walter. 2013. “The Gender Citation Gap in International Relations.” International Organization 67 (4): 889–922.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maltzman, F., J. F. Spriggs II, and P. J. Wahlbeck. 2000. Crafting Law on the Supreme Court: The Collegial Game. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Maltzman, F., and P. J. Wahlbeck. 1996. “May It Please the Chief? Opinion Assignments in the Rehnquist Court.” American Journal of Political Science 40 (2): 421–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Margolis, J. 1967. “Citation Indexing and Evaluation of Scientific Papers.” Science 155 (3767): 1213–19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Merritt, G. S. 1990. “Judges on Judging: The Decision Making Process in Federal Courts of Appeals.” Ohio State Law Journal 51 (5): 1385–97.Google Scholar
Murphy, W. F. 1964. Elements of Judicial Strategy. Vol. 551. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Niblett, A. 2010. “Do Judges Cherry Pick Precedents to Justify Extra-legal Decisions? A Statistical Examination.” Maryland Law Review 70 (1): 234–71.Google Scholar
Niblett, A., and A. H. Yoon. 2015. “Friendly Precedent.” William and Mary Law Review 57 (5): 1789–1823.Google Scholar
Poole, K. T. 1998. “Recovering a Basic Space from a Set of Issue Scales.” American Journal of Political Science 42 (3): 954–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posner, R. A. 2008. How Judges Think. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Posner, R. A. 2011. “Realism about Judges.” Northwestern University Law Review 105 (2): 577–86.Google Scholar
Reagan, R. 2006. “A Snapshot of Briefs, Opinions, and Citations in Federal Appeals.” Journal of Appellate Practice and Procedure 8 (2): 321–54.Google Scholar
Revesz, R. L. 1997. “Environmental Regulation, Ideology, and the D.C. Circuit.” Virginia Law Review 83 (8): 1717–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schauer, F. 1987. “Precedent.” Stanford Law Review 89 (3): 571–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Songer, D. R., R. S. Sheehan, and S. B. Haire. 2000. Continuity and Change on the United States Courts of Appeals. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spitzer, M., and E. Talley. 2013. “Left, Right, and Center: Strategic Information Acquisition and Diversity in Judicial Panels.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 29 (3): 638–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spriggs, J. F., II, and Hansford, T. G. 2000. “Measuring Legal Change: The Reliability and Validity of Shepard’s Citations.” Political Research Quarterly 53 (2): 327–41.Google Scholar
Spriggs, J. F. II, and Hansford, T. G. 2002. “The U.S. Supreme Court’s Incorporation and Interpretation of Precedent.” Law and Society Review 36 (1): 139–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sunstein, C. R. 2006. Are Judges Political? An Empirical Analysis of the Federal Judiciary. Washington, DC: Brookings.Google Scholar
Tiller, E. H. 2015. “The Law and Positive Political Theory of Panel Effects.” Journal of Legal Studies 41 (S1): S35–S58.Google Scholar
Westerland, C., J. A. Segal, L. Epstein, C. M. Cameron, and S. Comparato. 2010. “Strategic Defiance and Compliance in the U.S. Courts of Appeals.” American Journal of Political Science 54 (4): 891–905.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, D. P. 2012. “When to Hold, When to Fold, and When to Reshuffle: The Art of Decisionmaking on a Multi-member Court.” California Law Review 100 (6): 1445–77.Google Scholar