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Descriptive representation and public support for Supreme Court nominees

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2019

Jaclyn Kaslovsky ,
Jon C. Rogowski  and
Andrew R. Stone
Jaclyn Kaslovsky
Affiliation:
Department of Government, Harvard University, 1737 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Jon C. Rogowski*
Affiliation:
Department of Government, Harvard University, 1737 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Andrew R. Stone
Affiliation:
Department of Government, Harvard University, 1737 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: rogowski@fas.harvard.edu
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Abstract

Though the demographic characteristics of judicial nominees in the United States have gained increased political attention in recent years, relatively little is known about how they affect public opinion toward judicial nominees and courts. We evaluate these relationships in the context of race and gender using a conjoint experiment conducted during a recent vacancy on the U.S. Supreme Court. We find consistent evidence that Americans are more supportive of coracial nominees, particularly among white Republicans and Black Democrats, but no evidence of a similar effect on the basis of gender. Our results have important implications for theories of descriptive representation and suggest limits to its use as a means for generating political support for judicial nominees.

Keywords

Class and ethnicitygender and politicsjudicial politicspublic opinionrace

Information

Type
Original Article
Information
Political Science Research and Methods , Volume 9 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 583 - 598
Copyright
Copyright © The European Political Science Association 2019

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Supplementary material: Link

Kaslovsky et al. Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/QFWIHD
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Kaslovsky et al. supplementary material

Appendices A-C

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