| Abstract: |
We examine how politicization and polarization influence judicial review
within U.S. Federal appellate courts. Analyzing over 400, 000 cases from 1985
to 2020, we find that judges' political alignment or misalignment with trial
judges increasingly affect their decisions, particularly in the last two
decades. This trend is significant in precedential cases: panels of Democratic
judges are 6.9 percentage points more likely to reverse Republican trial
judges compared to Democratic ones, whereas Republican panels are 3.6
percentage points less likely to reverse fellow Republican judges. This effect
persists across ideological and non-ideological cases and even among judges
appointed before 2000. |