Wohlfarth, Patrick C.

Bio

Patrick C. Wohlfarth is a Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science in 2010 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 2010-2011, he was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Science and Center for Empirical Research in the Law at Washington University in St. Louis.  His research and teaching interests include American politics and quantitative methodology with a focus on judicial politics. His current research examines judicial behavior and legal institutions in the United States, including executive branch litigation, the impact of public opinion, and opinion writing.     

Dr. Wohlfarth is coauthor of three books:  Cognitive Aging and the Federal Circuit Courts: How Senescence Influences the Law and Judges (Oxford University Press, 2024; winner of the C. Herman Pritchett Award for the best book on law and courts from the American Political Science Association); The Conscientious Justice:  How Supreme Court Justices' Personalities Influence the Law, the High Court, and the Constitution (Cambridge University Press, 2020); and U.S. Supreme Court Opinions and Their Audiences (Cambridge University Press, 2016).  His published research has also appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Politics, Law & Society Review, Journal of Law and Courts, Political Research Quarterly, Political Science Research and Methods, American Politics Research, State Politics & Policy Quarterly, Research and Politics, and the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy.  

His research has won the 2025 C. Herman Pritchett Award for the best book on law and courts from the American Political Science Association, the 2012 Best Paper by an Emerging Scholar Award from the Midwest Political Science Association, and the 2013 Neal Tate Award for Outstanding Paper in Judicial Politics from the Southern Political Science Association.  He is also the 2015 recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award from the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland.