Doctoral Dissertation Research: Diversity and Judicial Legitimacy in State Courts

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The National Center for State Courts recognizes that the lack of racial and gender diversity on the bench continues to be a problem in many states. The current project is meant to answer the following research questions: What are citizens? representation expectations of state court judges? What are the consequences of the underrepresentation of women and racial minorities in state courts? How does the lack of diversity on state benches affect public attitudes toward judicial decisions and the justice system more broadly? What is the relative impact of descriptive and substantive representation on legitimacy and how does this differ based on different individual expectations? The research tests hypotheses derived from legitimacy theory, social identity theory, and expectancy theory. The research plan involves an experimental design utilizing two experiments embedded in a survey of a sample of US adults. Much of the underpinning of effective citizenship and good governance relies on the legitimacy accorded to institutions of the state. This is particularly so for courts, which often have counter-majoritarian elements inherent in their institutional characteristics. This research tests on the sources of variation in legitimacy among state courts.