The Impact of Racial Representation on Judicial Legitimacy: White Reactions to Latinos on the Bench

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/10659129211066875
• Published date: 01 March 2023
• Date: 01 March 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Political Research Quarterly

2023, Vol. 76(1) 158–172

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10659129211066875

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The Impact of Racial Representation on

Judicial Legitimacy: White Reactions to

Latinos on the Bench

Susan Achury

1

, Jason P. Casellas

2

, Scott J. Hofer

3

, and Matthew Ward

4

Abstract

Despite evidence that racial diversif‌ication has increased support for the judiciary, political scientists know little about the

heterogeneous effects of diversif‌ication across different population segments. Previous research illustrates that including

Black judges increases judicial legitimacy among the Black population, but it decreases the legitimacy of the courts among

the White population. We expand on this knowledge by examining the impact of adding Latinos to the bench. Our survey

experiment compares White respondents’perception of the courts based on differing levels of Latino representation in

the ruling panel. Does descriptive representation in the racialized issue area of immigration signal fairness and legitimacy

to White respondents? Or does the inclusion of Latino jurists in immigration cases trigger racial animosity and decreasing

support for the courts? We f‌ind that when the court rules against the White respondent’s preference, they tend to

penalize all-White judicial panels that rule against the perceived interest of Latinos. Add itionally, we f‌ind that when

presented with a Latino majority panel, White respondents who disagree with the ruling are more likely to punish the

anti-Latino decisions as their levels of group consciousness increase. Ultimately, our f‌indings illustrate how judicial

diversity may affect the countermajoritarian capacity of the judiciary.

Keywords

judicial legitimacy, race, representation, experiment, Latino

Public support for American institutions, including the

judiciary, have been trending downward for decades and

this slide notably increased under the Trump Adminis-

tration (Hetherington 2005;Kromphardt & Salamone

2021). For example, when a judge ruled against him in

a class-action lawsuit, Trump denigrated the judge and

trial as biased citing the judge’s Mexican heritage (Wolf

2018). To his mostly White supporters, such statements

potentially reduce levels of conf‌idence in the judiciary as

objective and apolitical, which might have consequences

for support for the judiciary (Kromphardt & Salamone

2021). These eroding levels of conf‌idence, combined with

the inclusion of racial diversity on the bench may shape

perceptions of judicial legitimacy among White respon-

dents in unique ways compared to racial minorities.

President Biden has been able to successfully appoint

more federal judges during his f‌irst 6 months in off‌ice than

any other president since Richard Nixon, and increasing

the court’s diversity has been an important priority, ac-

cording to an analysis by Axios (Swan et al. 2021). Still,

questions surrounding White reaction to a more diverse

judiciary remain understudied.

Judicial scholars have long noted differences in per-

ceptions of procedural legitimacy based on the extent to

which racial and ethnic minorities are on the bench, (e.g.,

descriptive representation), and the extent to which de-

cisions reached by the court align with the interests of

citizens (e.g., substantive representation). However, there

is a dearth of research on Latino descriptive representation

on the bench and its impact on perceptions of legitimacy

among Whites. We examine the impact of adding Latinos

to the bench on White perceptions of the fairness of

decision-making procedures, procedural legitimacy.

Specif‌ically, we focus on how respondents view the court

when they disagree with the outcome at varying levels of

1

Lycoming College, Williamsport, PA, USA

2

University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA

3

St Francis College, Brooklyn, NY, USA

4

University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, USA

Corresponding Author:

Scott Hofer, St Francis College, 180Remsen St, Rm 7007, Brooklyn, NY

11201, USA.

Email: scottjhofer@gmail.com