Religion and Judging on the Federal Courts of Appeals

14 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 716 (2017)

37 Pages Posted: 23 May 2017 Last revised: 18 Jun 2019

See all articles by Sepehr Shahshahani

Sepehr Shahshahani

Fordham University School of Law

Lawrence J. Liu

University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program, Students ; Yale Law School

Date Written: May 20, 2017

Abstract

We construct a database of federal appellate cases involving religious liberties decided between 2006 and 2015, expanding and improving an existing database covering up to 2005, and use it to investigate the role of religion in judicial decisionmaking. We find that Jewish judges are significantly more likely than their non-Jewish colleagues to favor claimants in religious liberties cases, but we find no significant effects for other minority religions. Our findings confirm previous findings in the literature, but we go a number of steps further than existing studies in uncovering the sources of Jewish judges' influence. We conclude that the effect of Jewish judges comes through their increased concern for the separation of church and state--not through their heightened solicitude for the interests of religious minorities in practicing their religion or through preferential treatment of Jewish claimants. Further, our analysis of cases not involving religion shows that the pro-claimant effect of Jewish judges is attributable not to a general liberal attitude but to a particular secular concern for the separation of church and state. Finally, we are the first researchers to go beyond individual effects and investigate the panel effects of judges' religious affiliation. Our findings in this regard have suggestive implications for identifying mechanisms through which panel effects operate.

Keywords: judicial decisionmaking, panel effects, religious liberties, First Amendment, Religion Clauses, Establishment Clause, Free Exercise Clause, empirical legal studies

JEL Classification: K1, K19, K4

Suggested Citation

Shahshahani, Sepehr and Liu, Lawrence J., Religion and Judging on the Federal Courts of Appeals (May 20, 2017). 14 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies 716 (2017), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2971472 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2971472

Sepehr Shahshahani (Contact Author)

Fordham University School of Law ( email )

140 West 62nd Street
New York, NY 10023
United States

Lawrence J. Liu

University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Policy Program, Students ( email )

Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

Yale Law School

127 Wall Street
New Haven, CT 06510
United States

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