Laura Moyer, Ph.D.
laura.moyer@louisville.edu
University of Louisville
Phone: 502-852-3245
Country: United States (Kentucky)
Research Interests
Judicial Politics
Judicial Decision-Making
Gender And Judging
Federal Courts
Countries of Interest
United States
Publications:
Journal Articles:
Is the public more likely to support a Supreme Court decision that is attributed to an individual justice or to "The Court"? In this study, we find that when decisions are attributed to the institution as a whole, rather than a particular justice, people are more apt to agree with the policy decision. We also find that identifying the gender of the majority opinion writer affects agreement under certain circumstances.
In this essay, I lay out a research agenda for studying gender on the international bench, beginning with a discussion of the normative arguments raised related to increasing women’s presence on international courts and tribunals. I then highlight empirical findings from research on domestic courts around the world that may have implications for the study of international judicial institutions. Specifically, I focus on four areas of research: gender and decision-making norms, court culture and leadership, deliberation and oral arguments, and intersectionality. The essay concludes by identifying several obstacles that have hindered systematic research into gender and international courts and offering examples of innovative research that has promise for overcoming these obstacles.
In this study, we examine attempts by Congress to split the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit over the course of seven decades. We find that only conservative, Republican members are responsive to changes in performance-related indicators, such as caseload increases and Supreme Court oversight. This is consistent with the argument that such bills are primarily motivated by electoral concerns.
Using an original survey of attorneys from North Carolina, the results show that, compared to white male attorneys, minority men perceive more unfair treatment from judges, and white women perceive more unfair treatment from court staff. Perceptions of unfairness are also generally higher for attorneys with fewer years in the profession, though very experienced minority men report much higher levels of unfair treatment by judges than other similarly experienced groups. This suggests that the challenges associated with working in a new or less familiar setting are not felt equally across all attorneys. The findings have important implications for understanding potential barriers for diverse groups within the legal profession.
Objective. This article explores the impact of race, gender, age, and intersectionality on attor- neys’ perceptions of unfair treatment by other lawyers and on satisfaction with their legal careers. Method. Using an original survey of over 2,000 attorneys, ordered logit is utilized to analyze attor- neys’ perceptions of disparate treatment based on race, gender, and age and to test whether minority female attorneys face unique barriers within their professional relationships. Results. We find that minority women are more likely than others to perceive unfair treatment based on race, gender, and age. This also contributes to lower career satisfaction for attorneys who are women of color than for other groups. Conclusion. The findings have important implications for understanding attorney relationships and potential barriers for minority groups within a profession’s culture. These obstacles not only impact attorneys, but could also influence attorney choice for citizens and the prospects for a representative judiciary.
This article investigates one causal mechanism that may explain why female judges on the federal appellate courts are more likely than men to side with plaintiffs in sex discrimination cases. To test whether personal experiences with inequality are related to empathetic responses to the claims of female plaintiffs, we focus on the first wave of female judges, who attended law school during a time of severe gender inequality. We find that female judges are more likely than their male colleagues to support plaintiffs in sex discrimination cases, but that this difference is seen only in judges who graduated law school between 1954 and 1975 and disappears when more recent law school cohorts of men and women judges are compared. These results suggest that the effect of gender as a trait is tied to the role of formative experiences with discrimination.
The determination that sexual harassment constituted “discrimination based on sex” under Title VII was first made by the lower federal courts, not Congress. Drawing from the literature on policy diffusion, this article examines the adoption of hostile work environment standards across the U.S. Courts of Appeals in the absence of controlling Supreme Court precedent. The results bolster recent findings about the influence of female judges on their male colleagues and suggest that in addition to siding with female plaintiffs, female judges also helped to shape legal rules that promoted gender equality in the workplace.
While theoretical justifications predict that a judge’s gender and race may influence judicial decisions, empirical support for these arguments has been mixed. However, recent increases in judicial diversity necessitate a reexamination of these earlier studies. Rather than examining individual judges on a single characteristic, such as gender or race alone, this research note argues that the intersection of individual characteristics may provide an alternative approach for evaluating the effects of diversity on the federal appellate bench. The results of cohort models examining the joint effects of race and gender suggest that minority female judges are more likely to support criminal defendants’ claims when compared to their colleagues on the bench, even after controlling for other important factors. This suggests that our understanding of judicial behaviors may be assisted by the inclusion of how individual characteristics overlap rather than examining those characteristics alone.