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Assessing Changes in State Representation on the U.S. Courts of Appeals
Author(s) -
SCOTT KEVIN M.,
GARRETT R. SAM
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-5705.2011.03917.x
Subject(s) - nominate , representation (politics) , state (computer science) , law , political science , test (biology) , politics , computer science , statistics , mathematics , paleontology , algorithm , biology
When a seat becomes vacant on a federal court of appeals, the president has the opportunity to nominate a new judge for the Senate's consideration. Geography is often a factor in the decision, particularly in determining whether the new judge will be nominated from the same state as the predecessor. Goldman refers to state affiliations on appeals courts (e.g., a “Missouri seat” or an “Ohio seat”) as “state representation.” Building on Goldman's work, we seek to accomplish two objectives. First, we demonstrate that although changes in state representation have declined over time, there are still occasions when presidents change the state representation of seats. Second, we investigate and analyze changes in state representation of circuit court judges confirmed since 1891 to test hypotheses about factors that influence changes in state representation.