U.S.: Interesting meetings of the minds of Supreme Court justices Friday, June 12, 2020

Empirical SCOTUS

Unanimity in the Supreme Court used to be the norm. In the early Supreme Court there were few dissents and so there was little opportunity to see differences between the justices’ views outside of how they authored their majority opinions.

This practice has changed over the years as now decisions are more frequently divided rather than unanimous.

Certain justices are also more and less likely to vote alongside one another. Differences in voting agreements can be somewhat staggering.

Last term, for instance, Justice Thomas voted at least in part along with Justices Roberts, Gorsuch, Alito, and Kavanaugh at least 75% of the time each. By contrast he voted along with Justices Ginsburg and Sotomayor 50% of the time each, Justice Breyer 51% of the time, and Justice Kagan 60% of the time.

Read more at: https://empiricalscotus.com/2020/06/11/interesting-meetings-of-the-minds/