Strategic Retirements of Elected and Appointed Justices A Hazard Model Approach

Strategic accounts of judges usually consider various aspects of dispensation of cases. We look beyond these traditional areas of study in judicial politics to examine whether state supreme court justices render strategic retirement decisions. More specifically, we posit a dual theory of strategic r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of politics Vol. 78; no. 4; pp. 1061 - 1075
Main Authors Curry, Todd A., Hurwitz, Mark S.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chicago University of Chicago on behalf of the Southern Political Science Association 01.10.2016
University of Chicago Press
Subjects
Criminal justice
Decision making
Judges
Politics
Retirement
Tenure
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Summary:Strategic accounts of judges usually consider various aspects of dispensation of cases. We look beyond these traditional areas of study in judicial politics to examine whether state supreme court justices render strategic retirement decisions. More specifically, we posit a dual theory of strategic retirements conditioned upon the institutional arrangements in which elected and appointed justices make retirement decisions. Employing an event history framework that analyzes the duration of state supreme court justices’ tenure and reason for departing the bench in the several selection and retention systems from 1980 to 2005, we show that elected and appointed justices engage in strategic retirement behavior but do so as a function of the diverse environments in which they operate. Our study implicates a number of theoretical, empirical, and normative issues regarding the selection and retention of state supreme court justices.
ISSN:0022-3816
1468-2508
DOI:10.1086/686024