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The Religious Right In Court: The Decision Making Of Christian Evangelicals In State Supreme Courts, Donald R. Songer, Susan J. Tabrizi

Faculty Publications

Much has been written recently about the emergence of evangelicals and others often labeled the "new Religious Right" in American politics. However, little attention has been paid to whether officials who have been socialized in the denominations characterized as being part of this Religious Right actually behave differently in office from those brought up in other religious traditions. The present study begins such an inquiry by examining differences in the voting behavior of state supreme court justices in three issue areas. Evangelical justices were found to be significantly more conservative than mainline Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish justices in death penalty, …