Signaling and Counter-Signaling in the Judicial Hierarchy: An Empirical Analysis of En Banc Review
Abstract
We leverage the institutional features of American courts to evaluate the importance of whistleblowers in hierarchical oversight. Drawing on a formal theory of signaling in the judicial hierarchy, we examine the role of whistleblowing dissents in triggering en banc review of three-judge panels by full circuits of the Courts of Appeals. The theory generates predictions about how dissent interacts with judicial preferences to influence circuits' review and reversal decisions, which we test using original and existing data. First, we show that judges who dissent counter to their preferences are more likely to see their dissents lead to review and reversal. Second, we show that dissents are most influential when the likelihood of non-compliance by a three-judge panel is highest. Our results underscore the importance of dissent in the judicial hierarchy and illustrate how judicial whistleblowers can help appellate courts target the most important cases for review.
Additional Information
© 2015 Midwest Political Science Association. Article first published online: 6 JUL 2015. We thank Tom Clark and Stefanie Lindquist for generously sharing data with us. We thank Alex Acs, Chuck Cameron, Tom Clark, Paul Collins, Greg Huber, Lewis Kornhauser, Chris Zorn, and seminar participants at Yale, Penn State, Washington University, and Ohio State University for helpful comments and suggestions. Data and replication code for this article can be found at the AJPS Data Archive on Dataverse, at doi:10.7910/DVN/29495.Attached Files
Submitted - bhkemp_for_web.pdf
Supplemental Material - ajps12193-sup-0001-Appendix.pdf
Files
Name | Size | Download all |
---|---|---|
md5:1a0e3fab84eb7cd2d7e1bd6da02c50aa
|
119.5 kB | Preview Download |
md5:de5188867b11653483a2d44119be6376
|
516.6 kB | Preview Download |
Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 67048
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20160512-104652785
- Created
-
2016-05-12Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2023-06-01Created from EPrint's last_modified field