Ninth Circuit Judicial Analysis

This story started with a simple question: “What impact are the judges former President Donald Trump appointed having on the federal judiciary?”

After some initial research and exploratory data analysis, my colleague and I decided to focus on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. This appellate court is one of the most influential judicial bodies in the world, overseeing federal district courts across a wide swath of the American West from Alaska to Arizona. With 29 judges, it’s the largest of the 13 circuit courts in the U.S. It also has a reputation for being one of the most “progressive-leaning” courts in the United States. Our goal was to investigate the impact of President Trump’s appointees on the court.

My colleague and I found that judges appointed by President Trump were using dissents in a way previously unseen in the Ninth Circuit. Our key takeaway was that these dissents were being used to establish legal arguments that could be used to overturn key decisions in the Ninth Circuit and beyond. We found several examples where a rare type of dissent was used to signal legal arguments to the Supreme Court.

To get the story, my colleague and I personally read hundreds of opinions and dissents that spanned a three-year period in the Ninth Circuit. We created a database of dissents, including information on the dissenter and type of dissent. We then used that database to analyze trends and find notable dissents.

Graphics from the story

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