UTPB GETS GRANT TO STUDY CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS

UTPB Assistant Dean Craig Emmert has received National Science Foundation grant for $165,000 to study the impact of campaign contributions on Texas Supreme Court decisions to grant review, on decisions on the merits, and on the votes of individual justices.

The grant funds a two-year study, and Emmert will work with MV Hood, III, associate professor of political science at the University of Georgia.

According to Emmert, the cost of campaigning for positions on state high courts has grown tremendously.

"Along with this trend, many have been quick to note that lawyers and corporate interests have been contributing to these candidates at unprecedented levels. Critics of judicial campaign contributions maintain that judges should be guided in their decisions by the law alone; they should not be unduly influenced by litigants, interest groups, and lawyers who contribute to their campaigns," Emmert said. "Others argue that contributors are participating in the established judicial selection process and that it is difficult to show that contributions have an effect on court decisions."

This debate regarding the effect of campaign contributions on judicial decisions provides the starting point for the present study. The study will examine approximately 6,500 petitions for review, 1,100 case decisions, and over 9,000 individual votes. Emmert and Hood will develop comprehensive explanatory models for all three phases of judicial decision making; including variables to measure judicial ideology, the political environment, case issues, litigant status, attorney experience, and law firm size. These observations will then be merged with data on campaign contributions by litigants, attorneys, law firms, and interest groups for both appellants and respondents.

Emmert said they plan to apply advanced statistical methods, including the use of sample selection techniques to model both docket access and case outcomes simultaneously.

The study will provide opportunities for students at UT Permian Basin and the University of Georgia to learn about research through direct participation in the research process. In addition, the study will provide information on current debates over the use of partisan election for choosing judges.

"Building on the findings of prior research, the study offers a more rigorous empirical test of a direct linkage between the interests associated with judicial campaign contributions and the behavior of judges who received those contributions," Emmert concluded.