Supreme Court Stat Pack for 2014 Term Available

The website SCOTUSBLOG has posted its Annual Supreme Court Stat Pack for the 2014 Term.  You can access the whole thing here.  52 pages of stats!

Here are a few stats that jumped out at me.

There were 16 cases from the 9th Circuit – out of 74 total.  The Supremes affirmed the 9th Circuit six times and reversed 10 times.

Nineteen cases out of 74 were decided 5-4.  That’s 26% of the cases.

Total cases decided in 1990 was 150.  Throughout the 2000s, the total has been right around 75.

Of all the cases decided, Breyer was in the majority 92% of the time (the highest %), Thomas, 61% (the lowest).

Of the 5-4 decisions (19 in total), eight times the majority was Kennedy, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagen – i.e., the “liberal” faction.

Of the 5-4 decisions, five time the majority was Kennedy, Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito, i.e., the “conservative” faction.

On all of the cases, Breyer agreed with Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagen 94% of the time (the highest agreement rate).  Thomas and Sotomayor agreed only 50% of the time (the lowest).

Of the cases that were not unanimous, Breyer agreed with Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagen 91% of the time.  Thomas and Sotomayor agreed only 16% of the time.

Scalia asked the most questions during the term, 22 per case.

Pretty fun stuff!

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