Re:Seuss-Star Trek mashup crashes and burns at Ninth Circuit
by fy20 on Saturday December 19, 2020 @12:55AM
(#25475440)
That seems somewhat wrong...? I mean these judges are supposed to be impartial, but if outcome is mostly based on who gets picked, then that isn't the case.
Re:Seuss-Star Trek mashup crashes and burns at Ninth Circuit
by AequitasOmnibus on Saturday December 19, 2020 @01:40AM
(#25475608)
I think it comes down to how both sides view impartiality. There's definitely confirmation bias when the president nominates a judge - often the candidates come from the same party so they share some broad ideological positions.
Most judges I think do see themselves as impartial jurists even if the results tend to skew toward political outcomes.
Re:Seuss-Star Trek mashup crashes and burns at Ninth Circuit
by josv on Saturday December 19, 2020 @09:19AM
(#25477532)
Hah! That’s not the “confirmation bias” I’m used to, but very apt.
The Circuits ordinarily hear cases in 3-judge panels (occasionally cases are heard en banc, where more/all of the circuit judges will hear the case). The outcome of a large number of cases can be predicted based upon the composition of the panel.
So where "conservative" judges make up 2/3 or 3/3 of the panel, you tend to see "conservative" (read: pro-business, pro-prosecution) outcomes and vice-versa with "liberal" judges.
It could be coincidence, but as someone who has followed circuit opinions for years, the panel composition has corresponded with the ultimate outcome a surprising number of times. (N.B. it would be interesting to statistically track the panel composition/outcome metric to see how often the correlation actually exists).