Who Shapes the Law? Gender and Racial Bias in Judicial Citations

• Published in: The American political science review 2024-05, Vol.118 (2), p.1067-1074
• Main Authors: SZMER, JOHN, MOYER, LAURA P., HAIRE, SUSAN B., CHRISTENSEN, ROBERT K.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: African Americans; Algorithms; Asian Americans; Bias; Black people; Black women; Circuits; Citations; Clerical personnel; Courts; Diversification; Doctoral Dissertations; Ethnic identity; Evidence; Federal court decisions; Females; Gender; Influence; Job Applicants; Judges; Judges & magistrates; Judiciary; Law clerks; Law Enforcement; Letter; Males; Opinions; Outcomes of Education; Race; Racial bias; Racial differences; Racial Identification; Racism; Reputation; Scholarly publishing; Social identity; Stereotypes; Whites
• ISSN: 0003-0554; 1537-5943
• DOI: 10.1017/S0003055423000801

In this letter, we assess whether the contributions of judges from underrepresented groups are undervalued or overlooked, thereby reducing these judges’ influence on legal policy. Drawing on an original dataset of discretionary citations to over 2,000 published federal appellate decisions, we find that the majority of opinions written by female judges receive less attention from other courts than those by similarly situated men and that this is largely attributable to disparities in citing Black women and Latinas. We also find that additional efforts by Black and Latinx judges to ground their opinions in precedent yield a much lower rate of return in subsequent citations by outside circuits than comparable work by white men and women judges. This suggests that, despite gains in diversification in the federal judiciary, stereotypes about social identities will play a powerful role in determining whose ideas receive recognition.