Judicial dissents from ideological allies in lower court cases are more likely to lead to en banc review.

In the US Court of Appeals, a panel of judges can vote to rehear a case which had previously been heard by the court, a procedure known as en banc review. In new research, Deborah Beim and colleagues find that when a judge who is an ideological ally dissents with the majority decision, this can act as a strong signal that something that is inappropriate has occurred, which in turn can increase the probability of an en banc review from 3 to 17 percent.