In a more detailed upcoming post I will take a look at many of the significant statistics from this term at the Supreme Court; especially those to do with the actors involved in the cases. To provide some early results, in this post I have the non-governmental attorney and firm that were involved in the…
Month: June 2016
Quick Note: 5-4 Decisions and Equally Divided Votes Since 1946
This Term was nothing if not unique. The Justices had to sort through a majority of the decisions with one Justice missing. With a Court of eight, the Justices could not possibly come to 5-4 decisions. The Supreme Court was officially set at the size of nine members in 1869 and Congress has not changed…
If You Can’t Beat ‘Em Block ‘Em: A Preface to a New Post-Scalia Court Strategy?
(images via supremecourt.gov) In the biggest cases this Supreme Court Term there was one common thread – the four Justices appointed by Democratic Presidents either voted together for the winning position or (likely) voted together to cause a 4-4 split (this was a potential strategy I discussed earlier). The numbers on the Court set up…
Research Corner: 6/24/2016
Three more papers worth reading: The Changing Face of the Supreme Court by A.E. Dick Howard (University of Virginia School of Law) Note: A very nice descriptive look at the evolution of the Court along multiple dimensions since the Warren Court years. Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Do Justices Tip Their Hands with Questions at…
Quick Note: Dissents from Equally Divided Court
Today we had two more cases affirmed by equally divided Courts. These included the quite contentious immigration case of United States v. Texas. Surprisingly, no Justice dissented from either of today’s equal divisions. In fact, according to my count, no Justice has dissented from an equally divided Court in almost 50 years (Justice Roberts dissented in…
King of Dissents
In a time of transition in the Supreme Court, much attention is paid to the Court’s ideological pulse. Justices Thomas and Alito, two of the more conservative Justices on the Court are the top two dissenter so far this Term (see below). Justice Thomas in particular was noted for his lone dissent in the death…
Odd Couples (and Trios)
With eight Justices voting on the majority of cases this Term, who are known to often split their votes along ideological lines, there were and are bound to be several unique repercussions. The Justices had and have the option of evenly splitting their votes and leaving lower court opinions as they stand. They also can seek…
Research Corner 6/17/2016
New research tackling questions in the domains of Supreme Court Studies and Empirical Legal Research (1) “Systems Science and the Supreme Court“ by Alan Calnan (Southwestern Law School) Note: uniquely posits an alternative way to think through the current stalemate in the Supreme Court confirmation process (2) “Strategic Cooperation: Modeling Concurring Behavior on the U.S. Supreme…
The Lucky Ones: Cert Grants 2016
Sixteen. That is the number of cases that the Supreme Court is currently slated to hear in the 2016 Term. This number in itself is exceptionally low for this time of year, although in terms of absolute case grants it is not exponentially far behind years past (see below). For those who follow the Supreme…
A Growing Fracture in the Death Penalty
Under Chief Justice Roberts, the Supreme Court has revisited the issue of capital punishment on numerous occasions. Just in terms of overall cases, the Court has ruled on 23 since the beginning of the 2005 Term (habeas cases where the Court granted cert and ruled on the merits simultaneously are excluded from this count). These…
Signs of a Gridlocked SCOTUS
Congress has historically low levels of public approval. Current Gallup Polls place Congress’ approval rating at around 18%. The Supreme Court’s approval rating tends to hover much higher – generally around the 50% level. One reason for this disparity is from sense that the Supreme Court does not engage in politics in the manner of other…
The Next Justice – In The Candidates’ Own Words
AP Photos / Charlie Neibergall / Matt Rourke The Supreme Court. A Major Election Concern? In this presidential election season the Supreme Court vacancy left by Justice Scalia has become a hot-button issue central to every campaign. Take Hillary Clinton’s comment during April 14’s Democratic Debate (which I will return to later): “You know, there…
Empirical SCOTUS 