This time, we’re addressing the first of our two-question analysis of the Districts’ record at the Supreme Court in civil cases: how likely is it that each District (and Division) will be affirmed unanimously?
In 2000, one-third of the decisions reviewed from Division One of the First District were affirmed unanimously, while none of the
This time, we’re reviewing the average votes to affirm each District and Division of the Court of Appeal in non-unanimous cases.
In 1990, Division One of the First District averaged four votes to affirm. In 1991, Division Four of the First averaged six votes. In 1992, Division Three of the First and Division Four of
This week, we’re beginning a detailed analysis of the votes to affirm each Division and District of the Court of Appeal: (1) how often is each court affirmed unanimously; and (2) what was the average votes to affirm each Court, year by year?
In Table 1514, we report the first half of the Districts’ percentage
This time, we’re reviewing the individual Justices’ rates of voting with the majority during the years 2010 to 2020 in order to discern which Justices might have been driving the small changes in the unanimity rate.
In Table 1512, we review the data for Chief Justice Ronald George and Justices Corrigan, Kennard, Kruger, Werdegar and
This time, we’re looking at the Supreme Court’s unanimity rate in civil cases between 2010 and 2020, tracking the data alongside changes in the Court’s party alignment.
Between 2010 and 2014, the Court continued to have six Republican nominees and only one Democrat. Although the Table seems to suggest a sharp drop in the unanimity
The party alignment of the Supreme Court remained at six Republican appointees and one Democratic appointee from 2000 through 2009. Across the entire period, the unanimity rate was 66.05% – twenty points higher than the unanimity rate for the 1990s. The unanimity rate for 2000 was only 48.98%. It rose to 56.25% for 2001. After
This week, we’ve following up our discussion of the academic literature on panel effects with a review of the Court’s unanimity rates compared against the evolving party alignment of the Court.
For 1990 and part of 1991, the party alignment of the Court was five Republicans and two Democrats. For those two years, the Court’s
This time, we’re concluding our four-part post, both here and on the Illinois Supreme Court Review, discussing some of the academic literature on panel effects in appellate decision-making.
Today, we’re looking at “Judging the Voting Rights Act,” 108 Columbia Law Rev. 1 (2008), by Professors Adam B. Cox and Thomas J. Miles.
Earlier this week, we began a four-part post at the Illinois Supreme Court Review briefly reviewing some of the leading academic literature on the phenomenon of “panel effects” – the theory that appellate panels are a collective decision-maker rather than a group of individual decision-makers, and thus a particular judge’s vote is influenced to some
Today, we’re reviewing the contents of our database, which includes every case decided by the California Supreme Court since January 8, 1990. For every case, we’ve captured the following data points:
CIVIL CASES:
Official Reporter Citation
California Reporter Citation
Docket Number
Case Name
Petitioner
Petitioner Governmental Entity (Y/N)
Respondent Governmental Entity (Y/N)
Source of Appellate