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Understanding Judicial Decision Making In Immigration Cases At The U.S. Courts Of Appeals, Margaret S. Williams, Anna O. Law

Margaret S. Williams

Immigration is an increasingly important area of decision making for federal judges. The recent increase in appeals of immigration cases to the courts of appeals raises the question whether judges deciding these cases behave in ways consistent with the extant attitudinal literature, or if other factors such as case characteristics and institutional concerns weigh more heavily on the decision making of judges. It is possible, for example, that the country of origin for the alien or the panel on which a judge serves also influence her decision making. Using an original dataset of immigration cases drawn from the Third, Fifth, …