We present a positive political theory of criminal sentencing and test it using data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, judges can use offense-level adjustments (fact-based decision making) to lengthen or shorten the Guidelines' presumptive sentences....

Less than 1% of U.S. Federal judges report political motivations for retirement and resignation. However using two centuries of data, I show that 13% of retirements and 36% of resignations follow political cycles. When the President comes from a different political party as judge's party of...

Current efforts at performance measurement in the state courts are described, situated in a global and historical context, using the framework of Pollitt and Bouckaert (2000). The structure of state courts in the US is described, with attention given to structural issues that affect...