Article III of the U.S. Constitution both limits the reach of the Supreme Court and at the same time gives the Justices great power. As the only branch of the federal government with life tenure, the judicial branch maneuvers oftentimes outside of public spotlight and so judges are not subject to the same public pressures…
Category: justices
Patterns of Eight Justices: Will They Persist with a New Court Member?
The Supreme Court has had eight members for over a year now. In that time the Justices authored seventy-seven majority opinions. Of those opinions sixty-eight were signed. Through this period there have been some interesting idiosyncrasies from the Justices that we haven’t seen in the past. We have seen new potential voting coalitions as well…
Taking Care of Business
The Supreme Court tackles fewer cases by the year. SCOTUSBlog’s statistics as reported by First Mondays Podcast show that the Court has also been slower in writing signed opinions this term than in recent terms. What is leading to these changes? One clear anomaly from the Court’s norm is the length of time the Court…
When Justices Recuse, and When they Refuse
By Samuel Morse Over the summer, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made the following comments about then presidential-candidate Donald Trump: “He is a faker…He has no consistency about him. He says whatever comes into his head at the moment. He really has an ego. …How has he gotten away with not turning over his tax returns?…
What’s at Stake in a Supreme Court Ruling in the Trump Immigration Battle?
The Supreme Court’s role as a co-equal branch of the federal government may soon be put to the test. While various issues relating to President Trump’s decisions are percolating in lower courts, one that has received much attention recently is his Executive Order on Immigration. Yesterday the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments regarding the temporary…
Early Term Decisions
The Supreme Court released two more decisions today in Samsung Electronics Co. v. Apple Inc. and Salman v. United States. Both were unanimous – the Samsung decision written by Justice Sotomayor and Salman by Justice Alito. This brings the total number of authored decisions so far this Term to four. All were unanimous and the only separate opinion was a concurrence by…
Immediate Effect of the Election on the Court and the Justices
The Justices have languished for months with the uncertainty of who will fill the empty seat on the Court. This uncertainty will by no means end soon, but the impending election and the election itself may have had a cathartic effect on the Justices. There is now greater likelihood that the empty seat will be…
The Supreme Court’s Gender Balance
The Supreme Court heard five oral arguments this week. This was one of the two weeks with five arguments scheduled on the Supreme Court’s argument calendar so far in the 2016 Term. All other weeks in the first three argument sessions have fewer scheduled arguments. By comparison, the Justices heard six arguments in two of…
The Great Supreme Court Debate
One of, if not the main duty of the Supreme Court is safeguarding Constitutional guarantees. Is the Court, however, the most important political branch of the government as well? For those who followed the Third Presidential Debate one could surely surmise such was and is the case. From a rule of law perspective, the Court’s…
Dissents from Denial of Cert (2010-2015)
The Supreme Court Justices released the first non-per curiam or related opinion of the 2016 Term today (contained in the Court’s opinions related to orders), although not in the traditional sense. This opinion came in the form of Justice Sotomayor’s detailed dissent from denial of certiorari in the capital case, Elmore v. Holbrook. Such dissents are becoming…
The Justices’ Surprising Support (Or Lack Thereof) for the U.S.
Since it’s election season it seems like as good of a time as any to gauge the Justices’ support for the government. The Justices and especially Justice Ginsburg have been by no means silent about the current presidential candidates. Furthermore, the Supreme Court is more relevant in this election than possibly in any prior presidential election. …
Friends, Foes, and Votes
Since the beginning of the 2010 Supreme Court Term, 82 cases have been decided by one vote (80 by 5-4 votes and 2 by 4-3 votes. Both of the 4-3 votes were during the 2015 Term (see this post for more information on those cases)). These include orally argued cases and non-orally argued decisions where…
Empirical SCOTUS 