The Effect of Gender on the Treatment of Supreme Court Precedent

• In Event: Gender and Diversity in Judicial Politics

Abstract

Several studies through the years have tried to answer the question of whether or not gender affects the decisions made by judges by examining if the final votes and decisions given by judges differ by gender. The purpose of this study is to further this scholarship by examining whether or not gender affects the likelihood that Courts of Appeals judges will follow Supreme Court precedent. In particular, I theorize that depending on gender, Courts of Appeals judges will be more or less likely to follow Supreme Court precedent. Employing a fact-pattern analysis, I utilize an original dataset of Establishment Clause cases decided by the United States Courts of Appeals between 1971 and 2005. Preliminary results show there are substantive differences in the likelihood that men and women will follow precedent.

Author

• Jennifer Jacobson, Kutztown University