Political Parties and Judicial

Decision-Making(1)

One study of supreme court justices at both the federal and state level carefully examined decisions in several fields of public law (i.e., criminal, administrative, civil liberties, tax cases), and private law (family, business relations, personal injury cases).(2) The study found that Democratic judges, serving on the same court with Republican judges, were more prone to favor:

1. The defense in criminal cases;

2. The administrative agency in business regulation cases;

3. The private party in regulation of nonbusiness cases;

4. The claimant in unemployment cases;

5. The broadening position in free-speech cases;

6. The finding of a constitutional violation in criminal-constitutional cases;

7. The government in tax cases;

8. The divorce seeker in divorce cases;

9. The wife in divorce settlement cases;

10. The tenant in landlord-tenant cases;

11. The labor union in labor-management cases;

12. The debtor in creditor-debtor cases;

13. The consumer in sales-of-goods cases;

14. The injured party in motor vehicle accident cases;

15. The employee in employee injury cases.

1. Alarn R. Gitelson, M. Margaret Conway, and Frank B. Feigert, American Political Parties: Stability and Change (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1984), p. 300.

2. Stuart S. Nagel, "Political Party Affiliation and Judges' Decisions," American Political Science Review, Vol 55 (Dec. 1961), p. 845.