Political ideology and judicial administration: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic.

This article examines how the political ideology of chief judges in U.S. federal district courts influenced courthouse policies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using novel datasets on federal courthouse jurisdictions and pandemic-related court orders from March 2020 to July 2021, the study isolates the effect of chief judge ideology—measured primarily by the party affiliation of the appointing president—while controlling for state and local COVID-19 conditions and policies. The findings indicate no consistent ideological effect on courthouse closures or the invocation of the CARES Act but reveal that Republican-appointed chief judges were significantly less likely to require masks and more likely to halt in-person criminal and civil trials compared to Democratic-appointed chief judges. Further analysis suggests that the increased halting of trials by Republican-appointed chiefs was largely a consequence of their lower likelihood to impose mask mandates, reflecting differing approaches to balancing public health concerns and procedural rights during the pandemic. The study highlights that political ideology can shape administrative decisions in the federal judiciary beyond case rulings, though it notes that these findings are specific to the unique context of the COVID-19 pandemic and encourages future research on judicial administration in other settings.