Can gender diversity on the federal judiciary make it less likely for judges to defer to the executive during times of war? Dr. Susanne Schorpp, Assistant Professor of Political Science at GSU, along with Dr. Rebecca Reid (University of Texas at El Paso) and Dr. Susan Johnson (University of North Carolina at Greensboro), found that male judges serving in all-male panels are most affected by national security threats and respond by deferring to the government. On the other hand, women are more likely to generate decisions that are more consistent with peacetime checks on government power.
London School of Economics’ American Politics and Policy blog (USAPP) published an article discussing such findings. The data is based on an earlier American Politics Research Journal article published by the same scholars in October 2019. The authors suggest that gender diversification on the bench can mitigate the effects of war-induced groupthink in male panels.
Read the blog entry on LSE’s USAPP website.