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Abstract
District elections are among the many methods that states may use to select supreme court justices. A state's choice of selection or retention systems reflects its political values: gubernatorial appointment stresses the importance of judicial independence, while elections indicate that judges should be accountable to the public for their decisions. We investigate whether district elections give judges incentive to act as representatives for their districts. Specifically, we hypothesize that state supreme court justices from conservative districts are more likely to vote against criminal defendants in cases from their districts than from other districts. We test this hypothesis on the votes of Louisiana Supreme Court justices in search-and-seizure cases, controlling for justice ideology and the facts of the case. The results support our hypothesis that judges may behave strategically by representing district interests through their votes.
Journal Information
The Justice System Journal is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes original research articles on all aspects of law, courts, court administration, judicial behavior, and the impact of all of these on public and social policy. Open as to methodological approaches, The Justice System Journal aims to use the latest in advanced social science research and analysis to bridge the gap between practicing and academic law, courts and politics communities.
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Building on two centuries' experience, Taylor & Francis has grown rapidlyover the last two decades to become a leading international academic publisher.The Group publishes over 800 journals and over 1,800 new books each year, coveringa wide variety of subject areas and incorporating the journal imprints of Routledge,Carfax, Spon Press, Psychology Press, Martin Dunitz, and Taylor & Francis.Taylor & Francis is fully committed to the publication and dissemination of scholarly information of the highest quality, and today this remains the primary goal.
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