Number of cases the U.S. Supreme Court decides each year: about 100
Number of cases state courts decide each year: about 100 million
Year in which state supreme court elections began changing from low-key races where little money was spent to highly politicized contests costing millions of dollars: 2000
Total amount contributed to state supreme court candidates throughout the 1990s: $83.3 million
Amount contributed between 2000 and 2009: $206.9 million
Unprecedented sum spent by special-interest groups on TV ads for state supreme court seats in 2016: $20 million
Percent increase in TV ad spending that represents over the 2012 election cycle: 50
Percent of that total spending done by independent outside groups as opposed to the candidates themselves: 55
Previous number of election cycles where outside spending exceeded candidate spending in state supreme court races: 0
In states where at least 10,000 ads for judicial races aired, percent increase in the likelihood of supreme court justices voting against a criminal defendant’s appeal for every doubling of the ads’ airings: 8
Since 2004, number of states where there’s been a supreme court race where spending exceeded $1 million: 19
Total spending in the 2016 election for two seats on the Arkansas Supreme Court: $1.2 million
For two seats on the Louisiana Supreme Court: $2.2 million
In the most recent election cycle, portion of interest group spending on state judicial races that came from groups which don’t fully disclose their donors: nearly all
Of all the outside TV spending on state judicial races in the latest election cycle, percent coming from groups that fully disclose their donors: 4
For every $10,000 in contributions from a partisan source, percent increase in a judge’s likelihood to vote in a partisan way, on average: 3
Percent more likely that Republican judges, who favor their own party in election cases by a statistically significantly greater margin than Democratic judges, will cast partisan votes in such cases: 36 to 38
(Click on figure to go to source.)
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