An Exploration of Influences of Sociodemographic Characteristics of Supreme Court Justices in Judicial Decision-Making in Income Tax Cases, 1920-2003

Abstract

Socio-demographic characteristics of Supreme Court justices were found to have influenced their judicial decision-making in income tax cases from 1920-2003. Based on historical voting patterns, voting scenarios were constructed to describe voting propensities of selected Supreme Court justices. The voting scenarios suggest that  Canadian judges sharing similar socio-demographic characteristics are expected to exhibit similar judicial behavior. Therefore, in the deliberation of cases in which a wide range of perspectives is needed, a more socio-demographically diverse court is preferred. As demonstrated in this paper, quantitative analysis can raise useful questions on judicial decision-making, but qualitative analysis is required to completely answer the questions.