For the last eight years, with our nation more polarized than at almost any other time in history, political affiliation and orientation (i.e., conservative/liberal) have emerged as strong predictors of attitudes on virtually every important social issue. We have previously explored the impact of these factors on verdict voting in white collar cases and found that indeed, a strong relationship existed. We documented a “Trump effect” in which the picture of the defense-leaning juror changed from the pre-Trump era to the Trump era. After 2016, liberals—particularly young, male or nonwhite ones—emerged as more favorable jurors and older conservatives appeared riskier for the white collar defendant. See Brickman, E. "The White-Collar Defense Juror and the ‘Trump Effect’: An Empirical Analysis," New York Law Journal, Dec. 2, 2022.

We are still considering case data from the Biden years, but we assume we are now on the edge of another upheaval. Tensions and anxiety continue to run high and much of our national discourse remains more negative than positive.