Environmental Regulation, Ideology, and the D.C. Circuit

Since the early 1970s, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has played a central role in the development of environmental law. As a result, the D.C. Circuit provides a good vehicle for an empirical examination of judicial decision making in environmental cases. Some commentators have criticized the D.C. Circuit's politicization and have maintained that judges simply vote according to their policy preferences. A paper is concerned with the impact that a judge's ideology, using as a proxy the views generally held by the party of the appointing President, has on judicial decision making. The study has 3 central conclusions: 1. Ideology significantly influences judicial decision making on the D.C. Circuit. 2. Ideological voting is more prevalent in cases, such as those raising procedural challenges, that are less likely to be reviewed by the US Supreme Court. 3. A judge's vote is greatly affected by the identity of the other judges sitting on the panel; in fact, the party affiliation of the other judges on the panel has a greater bearing on a judge's vote than his or her own affiliation.