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"A judge's race or gender makes for a dramatic difference in the outcome of cases they hear..."

The ABA Journal reports on 2 studies:

In federal racial harassment cases, one study found that plaintiffs lost just 54 percent of the time when the judge handling the case was an African-American. Yet plaintiffs lost 81 percent of the time when the judge was Hispanic, 79 percent when the judge was white, and 67 percent of the time when the judge was Asian American....

A second study, looked at 556 federal appellate cases involving allegations of sexual harassment or sex discrimination in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The finding: plaintiffs were at least twice as likely to win if a female judge was on the appellate panel....

More grist for the empathy/"wise Latina" conversation.

Full post as published by Althouse on February 12, 2010 (boomark / email).