Academic

Canes-Wrone, Clark, & Park on Judicial Retention Elections & Independence

By Lawrence Solum

Brandice Canes-Wrone , Tom S. Clark and Jee-Kwang Park (Princeton University - Department of Politics , Emory University - Department of Political Science and Princeton University - Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs) have posted Judicial Independence and Retention Elections on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

Judges face retention elections in over a third of U.S. state courts of last resort, numerous lower courts, and the Supreme Court of Japan. According to conventional wisdom, these elections engender judicial independence relative to contestable elections. We argue that in the context of modern judicial campaigns retention elections pressure judges to cater to public opinion on 'hot-button' issues that are salient to voters. We further suggest that judges facing retention elections should be at least as likely as judges facing partisan elections to cater to public opinion. Analyzing new data on abortion cases decided by state supreme courts between 1980 and 2006, we test these arguments as well as compare retention systems to contestable nonpartisan ones. The results refute the conventional wisdom, and suggest that retention elections encourage judges to respond to shifts in public opinion on hot-button issues such as abortion.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on September 22, 2009 (boomark / email).