Magistrates appeal to common sense to account for their actions and emphasize both the denial of expertise and the claim of authority for statements assumed to reflect public moral consensus. Female magistrates believe three crucial myths that have important consequences for female defendants: (1) that magistrates can never claim to know anything about female defendants, (2) that they can never generalize about female defendants simply as females; and (3) that magistrates can always reach a consensus about female defendants. Nevertheless, female magistrates act as though they have knowledge of female defendants based on cultural stereotypes; they also invoke the ostensibly unbiased notion of merit to justify treating female defendants differently from male defendants. However, if female magistrates were more confident about expressing their perspectives, which genuinely differ from those of male magistrates, the magistracy might improve its understanding of female defendants. Notes