Department of Politics at Princeton University

Cody Gray is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Politics at Princeton University and a J.D. Candidate at Harvard Law School. His research centers on quantitative empirical legal studies with a substantive focus on administrative law, civil rights and anti-discrimination law, and criminal justice and sentencing issues. More broadly, he is interested in American political institutions with an emphasis on congressional politics, judicial politics, and social policy in the United States.

Cody’s current research examines district-level variation in the impact of three important changes to federal sentencing policy: Congress’s enactment of the Feeney Amendment to the PROTECT Act; (2) the Supreme Court’s decision in Blakely v. Washington; and (3) the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Booker. Cody is also conducting research on sexual orientation-based employment discrimination, the impact of the 2009 federal hate crime law, the influence of expert testimony on statutory outcomes before the Supreme Court, and the nature of interest group participation in Supreme Court nominations since 1930.

Cody earned his M.A. from Princeton University (2012) and B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley (2007) where he graduated with High Distinction, as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and was awarded the Alumni Leadership Scholarship. He is a native of San Jose, California.