Who do Judges Cite? Self-Citations in the Federal Judiciary

Despite the critical importance of citations to judicial opinions, there is surprisingly little literature discussing who judges cite. We empirically examine judicial citation patterns. We draw from a dataset of Federal Circuit opinions between 2013 and 2023, and separately from precedential Eighth Circuit opinions between 2009 and 2019. Most notably, the study shows that judges disproportionately cite to their own opinions to a significant degree. We offer a taxonomy of reasons why judges may disproportionately cite themselves and provide examples falling into the categories. Self-citation appears to be a mixed bag. Some motivations for self-citation, such as citing out of convenience, seem positive. They allow judges to more efficiently manage their high caseloads. On the other hand, some reasons for self-citation, such as doctrinal preferences and consistency, can be problematic where they impermissibly outweigh institutional precedent. And although our results do not confirm it, they are suggestive of an availability effect: judges may cite their opinions because they are more familiar with them, making them more convenient to cite but also potentially making judges overestimate how consistent their own views are with the greater corpus of regional circuit law.