Redistricting and Party Loyalty in the State Supreme Courts

Abstract In this research, we examine redistricting plan review by state supreme courts to determine what factors influence party-aligned voting in judicial decisions. We analyze whether judicial selection systems matter, as well as the ideological extremism of judges. Our judge-level data includes votes on redistricting cases heard across the American states from 1961 to 2022. We find that judges who are ideologically extreme are more likely to cast party-aligned votes, but only when selected by appointment with life tenure or by partisan elections.