Appellate Review III

Journal of Legal Metrics, No. 2, 2014

14 Pages Posted: 8 Feb 2015

See all articles by Tom Cummins

Tom Cummins

Independent

Adam Aft

George Mason University - School of Law, Alumni

Joshua Counts Cumby

George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School; The Green Bag, an independent scholarly law journal

Date Written: February 1, 2015

Abstract

With this brief essay, we offer updates to an improved metric of appellate review – one which measures circuit court performance by compiling data on the Court’s resolution of circuit splits. A “circuit split,”as articulated by Supreme Court Rule 10, exists when “a federal court of appeals has decided a case in conflict with the decision of another federal court of appeals.” Thus, rather than simply calculating how frequently the Court affirms the judgment below (what we term the “primary review” affirmance rate), we examine how frequently the Court approves of a court of appeals’ judgment on the particular issue that has caused the split. Our updated metric aims to address some of the pitfalls of gathering this type of data.

Keywords: SCOTUS, Supreme Court, data, statistics, appellate review, circuit splits, court data

Suggested Citation

Cummins, Tom and Aft, Adam and Cumby, Joshua Counts, Appellate Review III (February 1, 2015). Journal of Legal Metrics, No. 2, 2014, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2560563

Tom Cummins

Independent ( email )

Adam Aft (Contact Author)

George Mason University - School of Law, Alumni ( email )

3301 Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22201
United States

Joshua Counts Cumby

George Mason University, Antonin Scalia Law School ( email )

3301 Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22201
United States

The Green Bag, an independent scholarly law journal ( email )

United States

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