Diversity Matters

Judicial Policy Making the U.S. Courts of Appeals

Bibliographic Data

ID10364128
AuthorsKyung Park (Wellesley College, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume131
Issue4
Pages877-879
Publication date2016-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Science Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3195 • E-ISSN: 1538-165X
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1002/polq.12559
OpenAlexW2563065172
LanguageEN
Citations received16

It is difficult to understate the importance of this research agenda. Diversity Matters explores how racial and gender diversity affect the federal judiciary. While numerous U.S. Supreme Court cases establish diversity in postsecondary education as a compelling state interest, there is not nearly as much credible empirical evidence on this issue as one might think. Why? It is incredibly difficult to disentangle the effects of diversity from alternative explanations that are just as sensible a priori. For example, if we were to find that minority judges vote differently from those of the majority, how can we be sure that the disparate voting behavior is driven by race or gender rather than, say, the ideology of the appointing president? Moreover, even if we control for the appointing president (as the authors do), what are the mechanisms that might drive such results? A book on diversity on the bench must be able to navigate such empirical challenges and provide a sufficiently rich and balanced theoretical framework to help interpret the results

Diversity (politics · Law and economics · Political science · Sociology · Judicial and Constitutional Studies · Law · Legal Systems and Judicial Processes · Public Administration

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub