John Szmer

Professor, Department of Political Science and Public Administration

Professor, Public Policy Doctoral Program

Education:

Ph.D., University of South Carolina, 2005

Research Interest:

His research examines the U.S. Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals, U.S. state courts of last resort, and the Supreme Court of Canada. Generally, he has focused on two central questions: the role that information plays in judicial decision making and the effects of diversity on the judicial process. Within these frameworks, he has explored a variety of topics, including party capability, attorney expertise and gender, judge gender and race, judicial efficiency, judicial selection, majority opinion assignment, and judicial dissensus. He has published more than a dozen articles in a variety of journals, including Political Research Quarterly, Law & Society Review, American Politics Research, Politics & Gender, Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, Social Science Quarterly, and the Marquette Law Review.

Dr. Szmer’s UVA Press book, coauthored with Jennifer Barnes Bowie and Donald Songer, The View from the Bench and Chambers: Examining Judicial Process and Decision Making on the U.S. Courts of Appeals examines the U.S. Courts of appeals using a mixed methods approach, combining more than sixty interviews with appellate judges and clerks with a variety of statistical analyses.

Presently, he is a co-principal investigator on a National Science Foundation research grant, “Collaborative Research: Judicial Diversity and Appellate Decision Making”, examining the impact of the Obama appointees to the U.S. Courts of Appeals, focusing primarily on the influence of gender diversity. He is also currently working on a co-authored book manuscript, Courting Diversity: How Race & Gender Matter from Bar to Bench (under contract with Cambridge University Press). The study explores how institutional structures and rules condition the effects of race and gender diversity on the judicial process.

In addition to his research, Dr. Szmer teaches a variety of courses at UNC Charlotte, including judicial process, judicial politics, constitutional law, gender and the law, quantitative methods (for undergraduates and Ph.D. students), and the introduction to American politics. He is also the UNC Charlotte Mock Trial team advisor, as well as an Honors Faculty member, core faculty member in the UNC Charlotte Public Policy Ph.D. program, and a Women’s and Gender Studies affiliate faculty member.

Recent Publications:

• Kaheny, E. B., Szmer, J., & Christensen, R. K. (2020). Status characteristics and their intersectionality: majority opinion assignment in state supreme courts. Politics, Groups, and Identities, 8(5), 894-917.
• Szmer, J., Christensen, R. K., & Grubbs, S. (2020). What influences the influence of US Courts of Appeals decisions?. European journal of law and economics, 49(1), 55-81.
• Moyer, L. P., Szmer, J., Haire, S., & Christensen, R. K. (2020). Diversity, consensus, and decision making: evidence from the US Courts of Appeals. Politics, Groups, and Identities, 8(4), 822-833.
• Szmer, J., Kaheny, E. B., & Sarver, T. A. (2021). “I haven’t come a long way, and I’m not a baby”: Task assignment and diversity of the Supreme Court bar. Social Science Quarterly, 102(6), 2907-2929.
• Moyer, L. P., Szmer, J., Haire, S., & Christensen, R. K. (2021). ‘All eyes are on you’: Gender, race, and opinion writing on the US Courts of Appeals. Law & Society Review, 55(3), 452-472.
• Moyer, L. P., Szmer, J. J., Haire, S. B., & Christenson, R. K. (2023). Who shapes the law? Gender and racial bias in judicial citations.
• Moyer, L. P., Szmer, J., Haire, S., & Christensen, R. (2024). Making Their Mark: Women Judges on the US Courts of Appeals. ConLawNOW, 16(2), 1.
• Szmer, J., Moyer, L. P., Haire, S. B., & Christensen, R. K. (2024). Who shapes the law? Gender and racial bias in judicial citations. American Political Science Review, 118(2), 1067-1074.
• Douglas, J. W., Szmer, J., & Raudla, R. (2025). Political tax cycles in the US states: Opportunism versus ideological sincerity in governors’ revenue proposals. Governance, 38(2), e12886.
• Gleason, S. A., Hazelton, M. L., Hinkle, R. K., & Szmer, J. (2025). A Fresh Perspective: Legal Team Gender Composition and Brief Quality at the Supreme Court. Political Research Quarterly, 10659129251345121.
• Shieh, M., Szmer, J., & Bird, M. (2025). When the Courtiers Return to the Marble Palace: The Impact of US Supreme Court Lawyers’ Prior Appellate Clerkship Experiences. Journal of Law and Courts, 1-19.

Areas of Research and Teaching Expertise

Justice Policy Methods and Analysis Faculty Website