Since Chief Justice John Roberts joined the Supreme Court in 2005, several pairs of justices have had notable disagreements in multiple cases. This is at least in part due to the justices’ polarity of viewpoints and interpretive methods. It nonetheless creates clear divisions on the Court as the justices have hardened viewpoints on many substantive issues…
Tag: United States v. Windsor
Is a Recipe for Justice Kennedy a Recipe for Success?
The puns are endless with a case that goes by the name Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The stakes though are no laughing manner. If the Court decides all of the issues brought up in the case, boundaries of the First Amendment doctrine may be rewritten as could the defining lines between religious…
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…
Changing Work Patterns in the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court decides well fewer than 100 orally argued cases each Term. This is only a fraction of the number of cases the Supreme Court heard in the past. There is concern that Court will hear even fewer cases during the 2016 Term due to the ongoing Supreme Court vacancy. The dynamics of these cases…
empiricalscotus.com 