Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship
 |
June 2020
This is the first phase of a study to discern the partisan balance on each of the 52 courts of last resorts in the United States. This phase attaches a partisan leaning to each justice sitting on the court of last resort in each state as of June 15, 2020.
Each state within the United States has at least one supreme court, or court of last resort. Oklahoma and Texas both have two courts of last resort, one for civil appeals and one for criminal appeals. As of 2020, there are 345 justice positions on the 52 courts of last resort.[1] The number of justices on each court varies between five and nine.
State supreme courts are the ultimate interpreters of state laws and constitutions. They usually hear appeals of the decisions made in the lower trial or appellate courts within their state. A state supreme court’s decision is final, so long as the decision does not involve the Constitution of the United States or Federal Law.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the extent to which each state supreme court justice in the United States was affiliated with either Democratic or Republican Parties within a state at the time of their selection to the court. Few studies have attempted to evaluate the partisanship of all state supreme court justices in the United States. The most reliable studies about the partisanship of state supreme court justices, such as CFscoring (published in 2012)[2] and the PAJID scoring system (published 2000)[3] provide information for few of the justices serving on state supreme courts today.
In this study, we gathered a variety of data on 341 active state supreme court justices across the 50 states in order to understand their partisan affiliations.[4] Based on this research, we placed each justice into one of five categories indicating our confidence in their affiliations with either the Democratic or Republican Parties. These categories are Strong Democratic, Mild Democratic, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
How to read this report
First, we review our Methodology and definitions.
We then provide an Overview of Confidence Scoring Results.
After that, we present our analyses of our data as it relates to specific questions regarding the state supreme courts and partisanship:
- State Supreme Court Control Compared to State Government Trifectas
- Breakdown of Justices by Confidence Categories
- The Most and Least Divided State Supreme Courts
- Judicial Selection Methods and Partisanship
- Partisan Balance Rules
- Retention Elections and Vacancy Appointments
Finally, we present our complete Confidence Scores for all 341 state supreme court justices who were active at the time of our study.
Below you will find highlights from our report.
To navigate the report, you can either turn to the next section by clicking on the title and arrow at the top right of the page, or you can use the table to your right to jump to a section of particular interest.
Click here to read this report as a PDF.
Highlights
- Of the 341 justices studied, 179 (52.5%) recorded Republican Confidence Scores, 113 (33.1%) recorded Democratic Confidence Scores, and 49 (14.4%) recorded Indeterminate Confidence Scores
- Twenty-seven states (54%) have a majority of justices with Republican Confidence Scores. Fifteen state supreme courts (30%) have a majority of justices with Democratic Confidence Scores. Eight state supreme courts (16%) are not composed of a majority of justices with Democratic Confidence Scores or Republican Confidence Scores
- 39.9% of citizens live in a state which has a majority of justices with Democratic Confidence Scores on the court. 51.1% of citizens live in a state which has a majority of justices with Republican Confidence Scores on the court. 9% of citizens live in a state with a split court, or a court with a majority of justices with indeterminate partisan leanings.
- The average Pure Partisanship Score of justices jumped almost a full point from the last four years of Barack Obama’s presidency to the first four years of Donald Trump’s presidency.
- The year with the highest average Democratic Confidence Score was 2006, recording an average Court Balance Score of -4.6. The year with the highest average Republican Confidence Score was 2016, recording an average Court Balance Score of 4.1.
- As of June 2020 there are 128 justices on the state supreme courts who ascended to the bench between the years of 2016 and 2019, 78 (61%) of justices recorded Republican Confidence Scores, 33 (25.8%) of those justices recorded Democratic Confidence Scores, and 17 (13.2%) recorded Indeterminate Confidence Scores.
- As of June 2020 there are 185 justices on the state supreme courts who ascended to the bench between the years of 2000 and 2015. 88 (47.6%) of those justices recorded Republican Confidence Scores, 70 (37.8%) of those justices recorded Democratic Confidence Scores, and 27 (14.6%) of those justices recorded Indeterminate Confidence Scores.
About the authors
Samuel Postell is a staff writer on Ballotpedia's Marquee Team and a lecturer at the University of Dallas.
Luke Seeley is a staff writer on Ballotpedia's Marquee Team.
Heidi Jung developed the graphics.
Ballotpedia CEO Leslie Graves, Ballotpedia COO Gwen Beattie, Editor-in-Chief Geoff Pallay, and Ballotpedia Vice President of external relations Alison Prange reviewed the report and provided feedback as did editor Cory Eucalitto. Outside reviewers included Dr. G. Alan Tarr from Rutgers University, and Dr. Aman McLeod from the University of Idaho College of Law.
Footnotes
- ↑ The total of 345 justice positions included a senior status position held by Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Christine Keller at the time of publication.
- ↑ Bonica, Adam and Woodruff, Michael J. “State Supreme Court Ideology and ‘New Style’ Judicial Campaigns.” accessed October 5, 2020, from https://ssrn.com/abstract=2169664 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2169664
- ↑ Brace, P., Langer, L., & Hall, M. “Measuring the Preferences of State Supreme Court Judges. The Journal of Politics, 62(2), 387-413.” accessed October 5, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2647680
- ↑ At the time of research (June 15, 2020) there was one position vacant on the state supreme courts of the following states: Connecticut, Kansas, Maine, and New Hampshire.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
