Completion of a Multi-User Data Base on the Attributes of U.S. Courts of Appeals Judges, 1801--2000

Auburn University, Auburn AL

Investigators

Abstract

This project will complete an extensive database on the personal, social, economic, career, and political attributes of judges who served on the U.S. Courts of Appeals. Under a prior NSF award, SBR-9311999, information was assembled for all judges who were commissioned from 1801 through 1992. This project will now add the judges appointed by Bill Clinton. The database will include conventional social background variables, such as appointing president, religion, political party affiliation, education, and prior experience, along with unique items such as the temporal sequence of prior career experiences, the timing of and reason for leaving the bench, position histories, rating by the American Bar Association, and net worth. This project will also merge the appellate court database with a parallel database on U.S. district court judges. The merged data will contain the widest range of information on all lower federal court judges to serve from 1789 to 2000.