Appendix C: Key Data by Circuit Court
This appendix breaks out data about qualified immunity appeals for each federal court of appeals except the Federal Circuit, which generally does not hear qualified immunity cases, and the District of Columbia Circuit, which had few relevant appeals. Disaggregating such a small sample would not yield reliable estimates. (The 41 qualified immunity appeals from the District of Columbia Circuit are included in the “all circuits” row of this appendix’s tables, however.) Because dividing our main dataset into 11 subsets magnifies the potential impact of incorrect algorithm predictions, we have largely included only fields with excellent algorithmic performance. 1
Table C1: Basic Facts
| Circuit | Number of Appeals | Number of Appeals per Million Pop. | Opinion Publication Rate | Percent With Plaintiffs Representing Themselves | Percent Where Plaintiffs Appealed a District Court Loss | Percent Where Defendants Appealed a District Court Loss |
| 1st | 105 | 7.5 | 86% | 6% | 64% | 34% |
| 2nd | 382 | 16.0 | 35% | 18% | 61% | 35% |
| 3rd | 335 | 14.8 | 25% | 22% | 68% | 30% |
| 4th | 244 | 7.8 | 41% | 13% | 58% | 36% |
| 5th | 708 | 20.2 | 29% | 33% | 70% | 28% |
| 6th | 819 | 25.1 | 32% | 9% | 49% | 46% |
| 7th | 273 | 10.8 | 77% | 22% | 71% | 28% |
| 8th | 407 | 19.2 | 81% | 11% | 53% | 44% |
| 9th | 936 | 14.4 | 22% | 24% | 63% | 33% |
| 10th | 540 | 30.1 | 33% | 25% | 64% | 34% |
| 11th | 736 | 20.9 | 17% | 18% | 60% | 38% |
| All Circuits* | 5,526 | 17.0 | 35% | 20% | 61% | 36% |
Note: The percentage of appeals that involved cross-appellants is not shown. Accordingly, the percentages of appeals where plaintiffs and defendants appealed a district court loss do not sum to 100%.
Table C2: Defendants and Allegations
| Circuit | Percent With Law Enforcement Defendants | Percent With Prison Defendants | Percent With Non-Police, Non-Prison Defendants | Percent With Excessive Force Allegations | Percent With First Amendment Allegations |
| 1st | 61% | 10% | 31% | 18% | 19% |
| 2nd | 57% | 23% | 32% | 14% | 21% |
| 3rd | 57% | 20% | 33% | 18% | 26% |
| 4th | 62% | 24% | 24% | 29% | 18% |
| 5th | 55% | 30% | 25% | 29% | 16% |
| 6th | 63% | 19% | 26% | 34% | 18% |
| 7th | 54% | 29% | 24% | 16% | 20% |
| 8th | 65% | 25% | 20% | 33% | 16% |
| 9th | 52% | 25% | 29% | 28% | 18% |
| 10th | 56% | 31% | 27% | 23% | 19% |
| 11th | 70% | 21% | 18% | 36% | 13% |
| All Circuits* | 59% | 24% | 26% | 27% | 18% |
*The “all circuits” row reflects data for all qualified immunity appeals in our dataset, including those from the District of Columbia Circuit.
Note: For simplicity, we have combined state and federal law enforcement defendants into a single law enforcement defendants column, and state and federal prison defendants into a single prison defendants column. These results should be considered reasonable approximations as opposed to precise values.
Table C3: Qualified Immunity Grants and Denials
| Circuit | Appeal With QI Grant | Appeal With QI Denial |
| 1st | 56% | 26% |
| 2nd | 56% | 27% |
| 3rd | 56% | 20% |
| 4th | 46% | 41% |
| 5th | 67% | 16% |
| 6th | 48% | 41% |
| 7th | 52% | 32% |
| 8th | 63% | 30% |
| 9th | 61% | 31% |
| 10th | 66% | 26% |
| 11th | 60% | 34% |
| All Circuits* | 59% | 30% |
*The “all circuits” row reflects data for all qualified immunity appeals in our dataset, including those from the District of Columbia Circuit.
Table C4: Overall Prevailing Party
| Plaintiff Success Rates | Defendant Success Rates | |||||
| Circuit | All Appeals | When Appealing a District Court Loss | When Defending a District Court Win | All Appeals | When Appealing a District Court Loss | When Defending a District Court Win |
| 1st | 21% | 5% | 53% | 61% | 33% | 76% |
| 2nd | 26% | 11% | 52% | 57% | 36% | 69% |
| 3rd | 18% | 8% | 43% | 64% | 42% | 74% |
| 4th | 34% | 13% | 67% | 42% | 18% | 58% |
| 5th | 16% | 4% | 46% | 72% | 40% | 86% |
| 6th | 34% | 12% | 59% | 47% | 23% | 68% |
| 7th | 25% | 14% | 51% | 59% | 42% | 66% |
| 8th | 22% | 7% | 40% | 63% | 43% | 80% |
| 9th | 22% | 10% | 44% | 57% | 36% | 67% |
| 10th | 19% | 4% | 49% | 64% | 34% | 79% |
| 11th | 25% | 6% | 54% | 61% | 29% | 82% |
| All Circuits* | 24% | 8% | 51% | 59% | 33% | 74% |
*The “all circuits” row reflects data for all qualified immunity appeals in our dataset, including those from the District of Columbia Circuit.
Note: This table uses the “prevailing party” field, which records the party who won an appeal overall. Corresponding columns (i.e., the two “all appeals” columns; the plaintiff loss and defendant win columns; and the plaintiff win and defendant loss columns) will not sum to 100%, as we do not display mixed outcomes (where both plaintiffs and defendants won on different aspects of an appeal). Mixed outcomes can be inferred based on the data shown.