Fourteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Many observers have been concerned about campaign contributions and their influence in politics. This study contributes to this area of research; however, the focus is on judicial behavior. Past research has indicated that money influences judges, so this research draws from past studies to observe whether campaign contributions influence the voting behavior of elected state supreme court judges. By examining cases from the Louisiana Supreme Court from 2015 to 2018, it is argued that donations from attorneys and law firms do influence a judge’s decision in a case. When attorneys who have contributed to a judge’s political campaign appear before the judge in court, those attorneys are more likely to receive the judge’s vote in favor of their client. A statistical regression is conducted with judges’ decisions as the dependent variable and the attorneys’ contributions to the judges as the key independent variable. The findings draw into question the voting behavior of Louisiana’s Supreme Court.