Even Best Friends Sometimes Disagree

Supreme Court Justices voting practices are fairly predictable.  For instance, most decisions are unanimous. Since the longest serving justice on the Court, Justice Thomas joined the Court in 1991 42.65% of argued cases have returned unanimous votes.  The Court also tends to reverse lower court decisions. The justices voted to reverse the lower court decision…

Does the Supreme Court React to Congressional Preferences?

In the 2019 case United States v. Davis, Justice Gorsuch began with an important statement regarding constitutional statutes. Gorsuch wrote, “In our constitutional order, a vague law is no law at all. Only the people’s elected representatives in Congress have the power to write new federal criminal laws. And when Congress exercises that power, it…