WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court wrestled with dozens of controversies over the course of its nine-month term, including affirmative action, voting rights and President Joe Biden’s student debt relief program.
Though the court’s final opinions aligned with conservative ideology, the rest of the term was more nuanced − a mix of conservative outcomes and surprising decisions in which the justices appeared to reach for a middle ground. That result was likely due in part to the influence of Chief Justice John Roberts, who built coalitions with both the liberal and conservative wings of the court.
Here’s a look at four key stats from the high court’s 2022-2023 term and Roberts’ influence.
Kavanaugh, Roberts in the middle
Much was made of Roberts being on the losing side of the decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade. But talk of Roberts losing control of the court quieted this year after he led conservatives in the affirmative action and student loan decisions and joined with liberals on two major voting cases. It was Roberts who wrote for the majority in all of those cases.
Statistically, there was no year-over-year difference: Roberts was in the majority 95% of the time in the most recent term, according to Empirical SCOTUS. That’s exactly the same share as last term.
As was the case in past terms, Roberts was aided by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a President Donald Trump nominee, who has for several years been considered the court’s “median” justice. Kavanaugh was in the majority 96% of the time, according to Empirical SCOTUS, including in a high-profile decision upholding a key provision of the Voting Rights Act.
Ideological splits: Eighty-sixing the 6-3
After a term in which the high court was heavily criticized for the number of opinions that cleaved the six Republican-nominated justices from the three appointed by Democratic presidents, the court seemed more likely to find middle ground in the most recent term. The justices handed down five 6-3 decisions split along ideological lines, according to an analysis by the Empirical SCOTUS blog.
That compares with 14 ideologically split opinions in the term that ended last year.
Analysis:Supreme Court term takes hard right turn in student loan, affirmative action cases
As is often the case, several of the biggest – and most politically charged − rulings were decided on 6-3 votes in the final days of June. Those included the decisions to gut affirmative action and the decision to strike down Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. A fierce defender of the Supreme Court’s independence, Roberts has long had a reputation of moving the law to the right − but doing so slowly.
That has, at times, made the chief justice hard to pin down. Conservatives fumed when he sided with liberals in the case upholding the Affordable Care Act in 2012. And they balked at his vote last year to uphold a Mississippi ban on abortion at 15 weeks but also keep Roe v. Wade in place. Liberals never forgave him for joining conservatives in 2013 to strike a provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act requiring some states to get federal approval for new voting laws.
Jackson jumps in, veers to the left
Biden’s first nominee to the Supreme Court, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, didn’t waste any time settling into her new role. She was among the most prolific speakers at oral argument and those contributions appeared to move the needle in several majority opinions. Jackson, as expected, also firmly aligned herself with the other Democratic appointees on the bench.
Jackson voted with Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a Barack Obama nominee, 95% of the time, according to Empirical SCOTUS. She sided with Justice Elena Kagan, also named to the court by Obama, 89% of the time. By comparison, Jackson sided with Justice Samuel Alito, a George W. Bush pick, only 64 percent of the time.
Fewer cases overall
The Supreme Court has, for decades, steadily reduced the number of cases it decides. This term, the justices handed down 58 opinions. Just a few years ago, the number of decisions regularly landed in the mid-60s annually and a decade ago it was in the mid-70s. In the 1980s, the court often heard more than 150 cases.
Rulings:Race, religion and debt. A roundup of the biggest decisions from the Supreme Court
The reduction may be due in part to Congress giving the high court more discretion over its own docket. In other words, the justices themselves almost always decide whether or not to take a case. But researchers have also pointed to a correlation between a more ideologically divided court and a reduction in the number of cases decided.
Those numbers don’t account for emergency applications on what critics have described as the court’s “shadow docket.” The battle over the abortion pill mifepristone, for instance, came up on the court’s emergency docket earlier this year.
