The sentencing decisions of trial judges are constrained by statutory limits imposed by legislatures. At the same time, judges in many states face periodic review, often by the electorate. We develop a model in which the effects of these features of a judge’s political landscape on judicial behavior interact. The model yields several intriguing results: First, if legislators care about the prop...

Increasing scholarly attention is being paid to women and judging. The literature now covers a wide field, only some of which can be referred to here: analysis of judicial appointments; the structure, practices and culture of the legal profession (Schultz and Shaw 2003; Resnik 1996); judicial decisions (including both the decisions themselves and their impact, or not, on women, see, e.g. Schnei...

How do judicial elections affect the propensity of judges to write opinions that are understandable to the public? Drawing on a growing literature that analyzes the content of judicial opinions computationally, I examine the readability of all state supreme court search and seizure decisions from 2000-2010. I assess the hypothesis that, just as judicial elections increase judges’ propensities t...

Among political scientists who study the courts, explanation of judicial behavior is the issue that receives the most attention. That issue is also a major concern in legal scholarship. Of course, judicial behavior takes many forms and occurs in many settings. The aspect of judicial behavior on which scholars typically concentrate is the decisions that appellate courts (and especially the Supre...

In February 2007, the American Bar Association (“ABA”) revised its Model Code of Judicial Conduct, including significant changes in both form and substance.1 The adoption of the 2007 Judicial Code concluded a three-and-a-half year revision process by the ABA Joint Commission to Evaluate the Model Judicial Code (“Commission”).2 During the revision process, the Commission solicited comment on a n...

In most states, trial judges’ sentencing is constrained by both ex ante constraints, in the form of mandatory and guideline sentences, and ex post review, often by the electorate. Might voters alter their evaluation of judges given the existence of boundaries on judicial discretion? Further, can legislators exploit this response? We present a model of ex ante and ex post control of judges given...

INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................... 966 I. THE JUDICIAL FEDERALISM DEBATE ............................................... 967 A. Evolution of Judicial Federalism in the United States ............ 967 B. The Arguments in the Dependent-Independent Debate .......... 969 II. ANALYZING THE LOCKSTEP DOCTRINE IN ILLINOIS JURISPRUDENCE .......

Our judicial system has generally accepted the use of scientific and technological developments geared to apprehending criminals.' Some widely used crime detection techniques that have gained judicial support are blood,2 urine, 3 and breath tests,4 which determine bodily alcohol or narcotics content; radar equipment, which measures automobile speed;5 ballistic examinations, which assist in the ...