Does the Law Matter? Federal District Court Decision-Making in Fair Housing Cases, 1968–89

Abstract

The dominant tendency in judicial research is to ignore the role of legal cues in favor of extralegal cues that influence judges' voting behavior. I argue that there is common ground between the two. This study explores federal district court decision-making within one civil rights policy domain: fair housing. Differences between litigant status, higher authority mandates, and the context of the dispute provide partial explanations for judicial outcomes. The results of this study indicate that research should reexamine the role that legal factors play because these cues are consistently significant for increasing the probability that a judge will decide to protect or expand fair housing rights.