A Statistical Look at the Supreme Court Term

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ended another term full of high-profile cases, controversial decisions, and a much-speculated but non-occurring retirement.  Handing down 80 decisions, the High Court issued landmark rulings in areas such as affirmative action, the right to privacy, free speech, federalism and punitive damages.  But taken as a whole, the Court’s latest term reveals a continuing trend for the Court to fully review fewer cases while reversing the vast majority of those taken.

In decisions spanning a broad range of statutory and constitutional issues, the High Court overturned nearly three quarters (74%) of the lower court judgments it heard and decided through written opinions.  This included 56 cases from the federal appeals courts, three from the federal district courts, and 21 from state courts across the country.  Such a high reversal rate indicates that the justices seem to be motivated to review lower court judgments they deem to be incorrect.  The 9th Circuit was the most often overturned of any court with 18 of 24 cases reversed or vacated, as shown in statistics compiled by the Center for Individual Freedom Foundation, while, overall, 70% of cases arising from the federal appellate courts, 67% from the federal district courts, and 81% from state courts were reversed or vacated.

The Court also continued its recent trend of deciding around 40% of its docket through unanimous rulings, with 31 of 80 cases being rendered unanimously by the justices.  At the same time, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor remained essential to forming a majority on the Court, especially in 5-4 decisions.  As shown through statistics compiled by Supreme Court Practitioner Thomas Goldstein, Justice O’Connor truly continued to be the “swing vote” this past term, as she constituted the single vote margin in each of the 13 cases decided by five-to-four votes.  That Justice O’Connor is the quintessential bellwether justice was also demonstrated by the fact that — unlike any other justice — she authored no dissenting opinions this past term.  In fact, Justice O’Connor voted to dissent from the Court’s result in just five of the 80 cases producing written opinions.

With rumored Supreme Court retirements failing to materialize, the Rehnquist Court will return intact this September.  And with such important legal issues such as campaign finance reform and the balance between national security and individual rights looming on the horizon, the next term is already much anticipated.

• To download the reversal rates of lower courts from this term, click here (pdf).
  
  
• To download the number and percentage of unanimous decisions from the terms of the past decade, click here (pdf).
  
  
• To download the opinion statistics from this term as compiled by Thomas Goldstein, click here (pdf).
  
  
• To download, the justices’ voting relationships from this term as calculated by Thomas Goldstein, click here (pdf).