Supreme Court Justice’s voting records
Bottom Line: The United States Supreme Court’s fall session is officially underway. A series of high-profile cases involving gender discrimination and abortion law are among those to be decided. As such there’s the usual dose of reporting about the court’s conservative and liberal justices. While it’s without a doubt true that ideology matters in jurisprudence, it’s also often overstated. Take for example the previous session concluded in June. The high court ruled on a total of 67 cases. Out of 67 cases how many do you think were 5-4 split decisions (the perceived liberal vs. conservative split)? It was twenty cases, or just under 30% of everything brought before the high court. Here’s another way of looking at the Supreme Court.
- Over 70% of the court’s rulings since Justice Kavanaugh joined the court have been non-ideological, consensus rulings
And as for the twenty cases in which a 5-4 split did occur, only in seven of those cases did justices split along perceived ideological lines – meaning all perceived liberal and conservative justices sticking together. In other words, only 10% of the Supreme Court’s rulings played to the traditional left-right ideological narrative that dominates media coverage and depictions of cases that are to be brought. Like investments, past results aren’t necessarily predictors of future results, but using history as a guide would suggest that when it comes to the high court – conventional wisdom isn’t most often wise.