Multi-User Database on the Attributes of United States Appeals Court Judges, 1801-2000

This project orignally was undertaken to compile a definitive
database on the personal, social, economic, career, and political
attributes of judges who served on the United States Courts of Appeals from
1801 to 1994 - it has now been updated to include information through the year 2000. The database includes conventional social background
variables such as appointing president, religion, political party
affiliation, education, and prior experience. In addition, unique items are
provided: the temporal sequence of prior career experiences, the
timing of and reason for leaving the bench, gender, race and ethnicity,
position numbering analogous to the scheme used for the Supreme Court,
American Bar Association rating, and net worth (for judges who began
service on the bench after 1978). The second objective of this project
was to merge
these data with a multi-user database on United States Courts of Appeals decisions
that is headed by Donald Songer and funded by the National Science
Foundation. That database includes a unique identification number
for each judge participating in a particular decision. The combined
databases
should enable scholars to explore: (1) intra- and inter-circuit fluctuation
in the distribution of social background characteristics, (2) generational
and presidential cohort variation in these attributes, and (3) state
and partisan control of seats. The collection also facilitates the
construction of models that examine the effects of personal attributes on
decision-making, while controlling for the conditions above.

该项目最初旨在编纂一部关于1801年至1994年间服务于美国巡回法院的法官个人、社会、经济、职业和政治属性的权威数据库，现已更新至2000年。该数据库包含传统的社会背景变量，例如任命总统、宗教信仰、政党归属、教育背景和先前经验。此外，还包括独特的信息项：先前职业生涯的时间序列、离职的时间和原因、性别、种族和民族、与最高法院方案类似的职位编号、美国律师协会评级以及（对于1978年后开始担任法官的法官）净资产。该项目的第二个目标是将这些数据与由Donald Songer领导并获国家科学基金会资助的美国巡回法院判决的多用户数据库进行整合。该数据库为每位参与特定判决的法官提供唯一标识号。合并后的数据库应能帮助学者们探究：（1）社会背景特征在内部和外部巡回法院间的波动，（2）在这些属性上的代际和总统同期群差异，以及（3）州和政党对席位的控制。该数据集还便于构建模型，以考察个人属性对决策的影响，同时控制上述条件。