Representative decision making on the federal bench: Clinton's district court appointees

President Clinton, like Carter before him, has made a concerted effort to a ppoint women and minorities to the federal bench in an effort to make the c ourts appear representative of American society. The question remains, does this symbolic representation translate into substantive or policy represen tation on the bench! This analysis is based on data collected about pairs o f Clinton's district court appointees who are similar in a number of respec ts but different in their race or gender. The rulings by these pairs, made in cases involving a number of issues expected to present racial and gender differences, were compared to determine whether Clinton's nontraditional d istrict court judges provided substantive as well as symbolic representatio n. The results indicate that these judges do not provide policy representat ion to their respective groups, nor do they appear particularly liberal or activist, as many of Clinton's political opponents have alleged.