Judicial Selection Map: Data & Other Resources

Judicial Selection Methods

• Brennan Center: Interactive Map Source Data

The data used to create the Brennan Center’s interactive map includes judicial selection information, including statutory citations, by state, court level, selection phase, and term lengths.

• Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System: Selection & Retention of State Judges: Methods from Across the Country

Judicial selection and retention data for every state, as of 2015.

• National Center for State Courts: Judicial Selection in the States

State-specific information on how judges are selected in different states at different court levels, term lengths, and more.

Judicial Campaigns

• Brennan Center: Buying Time – Campaign Ads

Our groundbreaking Buying Time analysis, first conducted in 2000, examines the sponsorship, content, and costs of televised state supreme court campaign ads. Data for these ads, including spending, spot counts, tones, and themes, can be found here, and our interactive ad database can be found here.

• Brennan Center: The New Politics of Judicial Elections

This series contains data on campaign contributions, television spending, and independent expenditures for each election. See the most recent report on the 2015–16 cycle here.

• National Institute on Money in State Politics: Follow the Money

Online archive of contributions to political campaigns in all 50 states, including for state supreme courts and intermediate appellate courts.

Judicial Diversity

• American Constitution Society: The Gavel Gap

Complete dataset of race/ethnicity and gender data for state court judges at all levels in all states and the District of Columbia. Data is current as of December 2014.

• National Association of Women Judges: The American Bench

Map of the 2014 representation of women state court judges in the U.S., according to The American Bench 2014, a biennial judicial directory.

• National Center for State Courts: Court Statistics Project

Includes partial data on racial/ethnic makeup of the judiciary.

• National Center for State Courts: Diversity of the Bench

Complete race/ethnicity and gender data for state supreme courts, intermediate appellate courts, and trial courts based off 2008 and 2009 data.

• American Bar Association: National Database on Judicial Diversity in State Courts

Provides a data on the diversity state court benches, nationally and at the state level.

• Alliance for Justice: Judicial Selection Snapshot 

Includes data on the demographic diversity of the federal judicial nominees of the six most recent presidents.

• Federal Judicial Center: Diversity on the Bench

Provides demographic information for all current and former federal judges.

Judicial Recusal

• Center for American Progress: State Recusal Scorecards

Grades for all 39 states that elect judges based on "whether the states that elect judges have addressed the conflicts of interest that come with multimillion-dollar judicial elections."

Disclosure

• National Institute on Money in State Politics: Contributions Disclosure Scorecards

Grades for all 50 states based on what contributor information is disclosed, the timeliness and quality of campaign finance data, and public access to the data in 2016.

• National Institute on Money in State Politics: Independent Spending Disclosure Scorecards

Grades for all 50 states assessing the independent spending disclosure requirements that were in effect as of March 2016. 

Access to Justice

• ​National Center for Access to Justice: Justice Index

Data showing the progress of  each state 50 state justice system in adopting best practices for ensuring access to justice for all. 

Court Statistics

• National Center for State Courts: Court Statistics Project

Caseload data from the courts of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Includes partial data on racial/ethnic makeup of the judiciary.

Public Polling

• National Center for State Courts: State of State Courts

NCSC conducted surveys in 2016 and 2017 of public trust and confidence in the courts, including questions of inefficiency, unfairness, and overall faith in the judicial system.

• Justice at Stake: Assorted Polling

Polling from the past 15 years on the impact of special interest money on the integrity of the courts, and other questions.