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 this number since that time. This Term in the Supreme Court there were zero 5-4 split decisions, including the cases where Justice Scalia voted. Some have speculated that this could be a unique occurrence; specifically a Term with nine Justices and no 5-4 votes.
The Table below charts the number of 5-4 votes per Term since 1946 (data provided by the Supreme Court Database)
Term | 5-4 Decisions |
1946 | 32 |
1947 | 31 |
1948 | 31 |
1949 | 2 |
1950 | 16 |
1951 | 12 |
1952 | 8 |
1953 | 11 |
1954 | 1 |
1955 | 15 |
1956 | 12 |
1957 | 30 |
1958 | 25 |
1959 | 25 |
1960 | 28 |
1961 | 6 |
1962 | 18 |
1963 | 13 |
1964 | 6 |
1965 | 13 |
1966 | 28 |
1967 | 1 |
1968 | 4 |
1969 | 0 |
1970 | 30 |
1971 | 23 |
1972 | 28 |
1973 | 31 |
1974 | 18 |
1975 | 15 |
1976 | 20 |
1977 | 19 |
1978 | 26 |
1979 | 29 |
1980 | 17 |
1981 | 38 |
1982 | 34 |
1983 | 29 |
1984 | 22 |
1985 | 37 |
1986 | 42 |
1987 | 18 |
1988 | 40 |
1989 | 43 |
1990 | 23 |
1991 | 14 |
1992 | 20 |
1993 | 13 |
1994 | 19 |
1995 | 17 |
1996 | 21 |
1997 | 17 |
1998 | 15 |
1999 | 23 |
2000 | 28 |
2001 | 22 |
2002 | 15 |
2003 | 28 |
2004 | 20 |
2005 | 14 |
2006 | 28 |
2007 | 12 |
2008 | 28 |
2009 | 13 |
2010 | 19 |
2011 | 19 |
2012 | 21 |
2013 | 11 |
2014 | 25 |
2015 | 0 |
Total | 1412 |
As you can see, the 1969 Term was the only other in recent history with zero 5-4 vote splits.
Looked at another way, this table provides the ten Terms with the fewest 5-4 decisions
Term | 5-4 Decisions |
1969 | 0 |
2015 | 0 |
1954 | 1 |
1967 | 1 |
1949 | 2 |
1968 | 4 |
1961 | 6 |
1964 | 6 |
1952 | 8 |
1953 | 11 |
The correspondingly phenomena this Term was the number of equally divided votes. The table below shows the number of cases per term with equally divided votes since 1946.
Term | Equally Divided Votes |
1946 | 1 |
1947 | 1 |
1948 | 5 |
1949 | 1 |
1950 | 4 |
1951 | 5 |
1952 | 6 |
1953 | 1 |
1954 | 3 |
1955 | 2 |
1956 | 1 |
1957 | 3 |
1958 | 5 |
1959 | 2 |
1960 | 2 |
1961 | 1 |
1962 | 4 |
1963 | 2 |
1964 | 1 |
1965 | 1 |
1966 | 1 |
1967 | 7 |
1968 | 1 |
1969 | 2 |
1970 | 6 |
1971 | 2 |
1972 | 4 |
1973 | 0 |
1974 | 1 |
1975 | 0 |
1976 | 2 |
1977 | 2 |
1978 | 3 |
1979 | 0 |
1980 | 4 |
1981 | 3 |
1982 | 0 |
1983 | 2 |
1984 | 8 |
1985 | 1 |
1986 | 2 |
1987 | 4 |
1988 | 3 |
1989 | 1 |
1990 | 2 |
1991 | 0 |
1992 | 0 |
1993 | 1 |
1994 | 0 |
1995 | 1 |
1996 | 0 |
1997 | 0 |
1998 | 1 |
1999 | 1 |
2000 | 0 |
2001 | 0 |
2002 | 1 |
2003 | 0 |
2004 | 0 |
2005 | 0 |
2006 | 0 |
2007 | 2 |
2008 | 0 |
2009 | 0 |
2010 | 2 |
2011 | 0 |
2012 | 0 |
2013 | 0 |
2014 | 0 |
2015 | 5 |
As you can see, this Term had the most equally divided votes since 1984 (which had the most for this entire time span) and is tied for the fifth most equally divided votes since 1946 (with 1948, 1951, and 1958).
Hopefully this answers a few questions for those interested in the historic significance of the decision types and vote breakdowns this Term.
The 1969 term also had a vacant seat.
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True. Only a handful of decisions with nine sitting Justices as well.
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