Q&A – How Partisan is the Supreme Court?

There’s been a bit more unity on the court than there had been previously. Perception and reality often aren’t on the same page, and this dynamic helps to illustrate that point.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
I have a question or topic you want to have addressed.
Just ask. This is the Brian Mud Show. Yeah, sure enough.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Today's Q and A.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
How partisan is the Supreme Court?

Speaker 3 (00:15):
This is brought to you by Molisten Ashes check Mark
Collections and each day I do feature a listener questions
send by one of these methods. You may email me
Brian Mud at iHeartMedia dot com, hit me up on
social at Brian Mud Radio. Well, I love it if
you would love us inside of the iHeartRadio app using
the iHeartRadio talk back feature and a couple things. When

(00:38):
you go into the app you find us, make us
your number one preset, we would love that, and then
the Brian Mudshow podcast my podcast number two preset. That way,
we are always there for you, four free, nice and easy.
And while you're in there, you will see the little
microphone button. You see it, you tap it. By the way,
it's true of the station page and Iheart's true of
the Brian Mudshow podcasts. Either way you get a microphone,

(00:59):
either way, I'll get those messages.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
You can leave a.

Speaker 3 (01:03):
Message of your choosing, but it could also be something
for a future Q and A, just like this one.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
Good morning Brian and Joel Brian. In the past, you
did an analysis of the Supreme Court saying that they
don't vote party line. Basically, if I'm summarizing correctly, it
seems to be now that Kagan, Sodomayor, and Jackson are
voting on a party line on a regular basis, has
that analysis changed? Okay?

Speaker 3 (01:29):
So, really great question. You have a really good memory,
because when I got this, I went back to my
research I always do if I have something that's a
follow up to a previous story. The last time that
I covered this dynamic was in January of twenty twenty two,
so you have to go back three and a half years.
It was when Justice Stephen Bryer was stepping aside for

(01:50):
the seat that is now occupied by Justice Jackson, and
at the time I mentioned a couple of related points
that probably surprised a lot of people and likely still will.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
So let's get to it. You've got two.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Great resources for researching this type of information, the University
of Washington Supreme Court Database and Scotis blog does a
terrific job on this too. So let's start with how
often the previous Supreme Court. This is when Brier was
still on the Court voted together, and the answer was

(02:22):
seventy percent. Seventy percent of the Court's rulings were non
ideological consensus ruins. Okay, So, walking back to what you
remember me having covered previously, is that seventy percent of
the time the rulings are not you know, these six

(02:42):
y three highly ideological kind of splits. And so the
prominent reason it feels different, why is it that the
Supreme Court might feel so partisan, was so divided so
often is most Supreme Court cases just don't received meaningful
news coverage. It's only the high profile cases that do,

(03:05):
and they're often the ones that do have really significant
political overtures, and so that gets all the attention. That's
what you're led to believe typically happens at the Supreme Court. Right, So,
how has that played out most recently with Justice Jackson
in place of Briar? So to update this begin answering

(03:27):
today's question. Okay, so it is seventy percent of the
time when Brier was still in the court, you had
non ideological consensus rulings. Since Jackson joined the court, we
are at seventy one percent, No kidding, seventy one percent
of the Court's rulings over the past three and a
half years have been non ideological consensus rulings. It's nearly identical,

(03:50):
nearly identical, and actually one percent less likely to be ideological. Actually,
it's slightly more unity on the Court than had been previous.
There not likely what people think, right, and so perception reality.
And by the way, before updating this research, I wouldn't
have guessed this necessarily either. So yeah, perception reality just

(04:11):
often are are not on the same page. And as
I dive in a bit deeper for you, here are
a few other dynamics with the Court most recently that
probably will surprise as well. Forty five percent of all
rulings in the three most recent Supreme Court terms have

(04:32):
been unanimous rulings, no kidding. The most common kind of
ruling you get out of the United States Supreme Court
of any other split unanimous A nine to zero, A
nine to zero forty five percent of the time. How
about six y three? That is your your most partisan,
your fully partisan split ruling A six y three along

(04:54):
perceived ideological lines. How often does that happen? Only nine
percent of the time, only nine And Chief Justice John
Roberts has been the most likely to vote for the
majority opinion. This has happened in the current incarnation of
the Court ninety five percent of the time. Justice Jackson

(05:15):
has been the least likely to vote in the majority.
She has done so seventy two percent of the time. Okay,
so this illustrates that Chief Justice Roberts is the most
influential member of the Supreme Court over the past three
and a half years. By the way, when I last
analyzed this in January twenty two, at that point it

(05:36):
had been Brett Kavanaugh. He had been the most influential
in terms of deciding outcomes, but it's back to being
Chief Justice Roberts. We also see that Justice Jackson is
most likely the most likely to be an outlier, which
is probably the one statistic that lines up with perceptions,

(05:57):
because I do think most people would view her to
the ultimate outlier, and she has been so. Interestingly, though
since joining the Supreme Court, Justice Jackson hasn't been the
most liberal justice on the Court through her first three
years on it, though she was the most liberal this
past year. It seems as though she might be moving

(06:18):
further left as she becomes more comfortable in the court. Also,
today she has been approximately like, if you're going to
take a look at the Parson split, some things eight
percent more liberal, you might say in her rulings Center
predecessor Briar. Briar had actually been of the so called
liberal voting block, the most moderate, and so you do
have Jackson that is to be left of where Briar was. Therefore,

(06:41):
the court has moved left a little bit with her
on it, but because of the six' to three so
called conservative, majority it really hasn't had any significant.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
Effect Medium minute With Howard.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Kurtz President trump has sued The Wall street Journe or
for a story that he, denies and this has brought
out into the public information that might otherwise remain. Confidential
the journal reported that back in two thousand and, Three
trump sent a birthday note to convicted Pedophile Jeffrey epstein

(07:17):
with a sketch of a naked. Woman trump says he
doesn't even know how to, draw he didn't use that.
Language and this is one set of, accusations and the
journal has yet to respond to the. Story, also the
president Ordering Attorney General Pam bondi to release grand jury

(07:38):
testimony from The epstein.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Case there's been a lot of developments. Here this will
ultimately be up to a.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
Judge and the media can't get enough of this, story
And maga world continues to be upset with your medium
minute how he Kurts Fox news