Document Type
Article
Abstract
While the previous literature has found that certain background characteristics of federal judges, such as their race, gender, and ideology, statistically correlate with case outcomes, little prior scholarship has examined the connection between judges’ educational backgrounds and their judicial decision-making. The empirical study that this Article presents fills a critical gap in the literature by statistically analyzing the relationship between federal judges’ undergraduate degrees and their rulings in cases related to trade secrets, a highly valuable form of intellectual property (IP) for many companies. Notably, it finds that if a trade secret case is assigned to a judge who possesses a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree rather than another type of bachelor’s degree, such as a Bachelor of Arts degree, a plaintiff who requests a preliminary injunction on average has a more than 35% greater chance of that judge granting the injunction. I argue that this outcome is likely due to a pro-IP socialization effect in the undergraduate programs of judges who hold a B.S. degree. This study’s findings have significant implications for fairness to litigants in the federal courts and highlight the potential for future forum shopping by trade secret plaintiffs to seek out judges with more favorable preliminary injunction grant rates based on the judges’ educational histories.
Recommended Citation
Christopher P. Dinkel, A Degree of Pro-IP Preference: An Empirical Study of the Relationship Between Federal Judges' Undergraduate Programs and Their Trade Secret Decisions, 126 W. Va. L. Rev. 185 (2023).