The Roberts Court

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SCOTUS
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Cases by term
Judgeships
Posts: 9
Judges: 9
Judges
Chief: John Roberts
Active: Samuel Alito, Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts, Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas


The Roberts Court started in September 2005 and is ongoing. President George W. Bush (R) nominated John Roberts to the United States Supreme Court on July 19, 2005.

Bush originally nominated Roberts to succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor upon her retirement. However, when Chief Justice William Rehnquist died in September 2005, Bush nominated Roberts to succeed Rehnquist.




About Chief Justice Roberts

Before becoming Chief Justice, John Roberts was a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2003 to 2005. He spent thirteen years with the firm Hogan & Hartson and also served as a principal deputy solicitor general in the United States Department of Justice.[1]

Professional career


Associate Justices

The Justices in this table have served during the Roberts Court.

Tenure Justice Nominated By
1975-2010 John Paul Stevens Gerald Ford (R)
1981-2006 Sandra Day O'Connor Ronald Reagan (R)
1986-2016 Antonin Scalia Ronald Reagan (R)
1988-2018 Anthony Kennedy Ronald Reagan (R)
1990-2009 David Souter George H.W. Bush (R)
1993-2020 Ruth Bader Ginsburg Bill Clinton (D)
1991-Present Clarence Thomas George H.W. Bush (R)
1994-2022 Stephen Breyer Bill Clinton (D)
2006-Present Samuel Alito George W. Bush (R)
2009-Present Sonia Sotomayor Barack Obama (D)
2010-Present Elena Kagan Barack Obama (D)
2017-Present Neil Gorsuch Donald Trump (R)
2018-Present Brett Kavanaugh Donald Trump (R)
2020-Present Amy Coney Barrett Donald Trump (R)
2022-Present Ketanji Brown Jackson Joe Biden (D)


Chief justice statistics

5-4 majorities and 8-1 dissents

See also: Noteworthy cases heard by current justices on the U.S. Supreme Court

From September 2005 through the 2021-2022 term, Roberts authored the majority opinion in a 5-4 decision 32 times and authored one dissent in an 8-1 decision. The table below details these cases by year.[2]

The noteworthy cases listed in this section include any case where the justice authored a 5-4 majority opinion or an 8-1 dissent. Other cases may be included in this section if they set or overturn an established legal precedent, are a major point of discussion in an election campaign, receive substantial media attention related to the justice's ruling, or based on our editorial judgment that the case is noteworthy. For more on how we decide which cases are noteworthy, click here.


Since he joined the court through the 2022-2023 term, Roberts authored the majority opinion in a 5-4 decision 34 times and authored one dissent in an 8-1 decision. The table below details these cases by year.[3]

John Roberts noteworthy cases
Year 5-4 majority opinion 8-1 dissenting opinion
Total 34 1
2023-2024 1 0
2022-2023 1 0
2021-2022 2 0
2020-2021 2 1
2019-2020 4 0
2018-2019 4 0
2017-2018 2 0
2016-2017 0 0
2015-2016 0 0
2014-2015 2 0
2013-2014 1 0
2012-2013 2 0
2011-2012 1 0
2010-2011 3 0
2009-2010 2 0
2008-2009 2 0
2007-2008 1 0
2006-2007 3 0
2005-2006 1 0


Opinions by year

Below is a table of the number of opinions, concurrences, and dissents that Roberts has issued since joining the Supreme Court, according to the data from Cornell University’s Legal Information Institute and from the annual Stat Pack produced by the website SCOTUSBlog. This information is updated annually at the end of each term.[4][5] Information for the 2022 term is from a dataset provided by Dr. Adam Feldman, author of Empirical SCOTUS. Data for the 2022-2023 term does not include concurrences and dissents in part. Information for the 2023 term is from the Empirical SCOTUS 2023 Stat Review.


Opinions written by year, Roberts
2022 - 2023 2023 - 2024
Opinions 7 7
Concurrences 0 1
Dissents 0 1
Totals 7 9




Justice agreement

In the 2023-2024 term, Roberts had the highest agreement rate with Brett Kavanaugh. Roberts had the lowest agreement rate with Ketanji Brown Jackson.[6] In the 2022-2023 term, Roberts had the highest agreement rate with Brett Kavanaugh. He had the lowest agreement rates with Clarence Thomas.[7] This does not include agreements in part.[8]

The table below highlights Roberts' agreement rate with each justice on the court during that term.[9][10]


John Roberts agreement rates by term, 2017 - Present
Justice 2017 - 2018 2018 - 2019 2019 - 2020 2020 - 2021 2021 - 2022 2022 - 2023 2023 - 2024
Anthony Kennedy 90% N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Clarence Thomas 79% 76% 72% 75% 79% 75% 80%
Ruth Bader Ginsburg 68% 63% 70% N/A N/A N/A N/A
Stephen Breyer 70% 69% 74% 73% 62% N/A N/A
Samuel Alito 77% 89% 77% 83% 89% 78% 83%
Sonia Sotomayor 66% 65% 69% 66% 54% 76% 71%
Elena Kagan 72% 69% 78% 72% 63% 82% 71%
Neil Gorsuch 83% 68% 85% 81% 73% 76% 76%
Brett Kavanaugh N/A 94% 93% 94% 100% 95% 95%
Amy Coney Barrett N/A N/A N/A 84% 89% 89% 88%
Ketanji Brown Jackson N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 78% 69%

Frequency in majority

In the 2023-2024 term, Roberts was in the majority in 97 percent of decisions. He was in the majority more often than the eight other justices.[6]In the 2022-2023 term, Roberts was in the majority in 95 percent of decisions. He and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was in the majority in 96 percent of decisions, were in the majority more often than the seven other justices.[7][11][12]

Since the 2011-2012 term, Roberts has been in the majority at least 80 percent of the time each term, and been in the majority more than 90 percent of the time ten times. Across those terms, he has been in the majority for 91 percent of all cases.[12][6]


See also


External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ United States Supreme Court, "About the Court: Current Members: Biographies," accessed September 23, 2021
  2. ↑ The Supreme Court Database, "Analysis," accessed June 11, 2019
  3. ↑ The Supreme Court Database, "Analysis," accessed December 18, 2023
  4. ↑ SCOTUSBlog, "Final Stat Pack for October Term 2016 and key takeaways," accessed April 16, 2018
  5. ↑ SCOTUSBlog, "Final Stat Pack for October Term 2017 and key takeaways," accessed October 4, 2018
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Empirical SCOTUS, "2023 Stat Review," July 1, 2024
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Empirical SCOTUS, "Another One Bites the Dust: End of 2022/2023 Supreme Court Term Statistics," November 16, 2023
  8. ↑ SCOTUSblog, "STAT PACK for the Supreme Court’s 2021-22 term," July 2, 2021
  9. ↑ Due to a change in the 2020 stat pack format, the agreement rate uses the rate of agreement in judgment.
  10. ↑ Due to a change in the 2021 stat pack format, the agreement rate uses the rate of agreement in judgment.
  11. ↑ SCOTUSblog, "2020-21 Stat pack: Frequency in the majority," July 2, 2021
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 SCOTUSblog, "STAT PACK for the Supreme Court's 2021-22 term," July 1, 2022
  13. ↑ U.S. Supreme Court, “The Supreme Court at Work: The Term and Caseload,” accessed February 5, 2024
  14. ↑ SCOTUSblog, “Supreme Court Procedure,” accessed February 5, 2024
  15. ↑ When the case was originally accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court, the case name was ‘‘Kerr v. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic’’.
  16. ↑ Justice Samuel Alito recused himself from the case.
  17. ↑ When the case was originally accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court, the case name was John H. Merrill, Alabama Secretary of State, et al. v. Evan Milligan, et al. (Consolidated with John H. Merrill, Alabama Secretary of State, et al., v. Marcus Caster, et al.)
  18. ↑ Justice Amy Coney-Barrett did not take part in consideration of the decision.
  19. ↑ When the case was originally accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court, the case name was Albence v. Guzman Chavez.
  20. ↑ When the case was originally accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court, the case name was Americans for Prosperity v. Becerra.
  21. ↑ The New York Times, "On Language' Potus and Flotus," October 12, 1997
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 SupremeCourt.gov, "A Brief Overview of the Supreme Court," accessed April 20, 2015
  23. ↑ United States Supreme Court, "Letter to President," January 27, 2022
  24. ↑ YouTube, "President Biden Delivers Remarks on the Retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer," January 27, 2022
  25. ↑ Federal Judicial Center, "Breyer, Stephen Gerald," accessed April 13, 2023
  26. ↑ Congress.gov, "PN1783 — Ketanji Brown Jackson — Supreme Court of the United States," accessed April 7, 2022
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History of the Supreme Court
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