The Supreme Court

Each September we review the prior term of the United States Supreme Court.  Last term, as always, brought some interesting cases and even some surprises, though it was without blockbusters, like 2010’s Citizen’s United or next term’s expected decision on the health care legislation.  Next term, as the New York Times has pointed out, may include the most significant clash between the Supreme Court and a president since the New Deal.

This last term shows a Court where Justice Roberts has further consolidated his power and where business interests generally predominate.  The Wal-Mart and AT&T cases, which we write about in this issue, significantly cut back class action relief and were sought and welcomed by business.  The First Amendment – and we write about three First Amendment cases from last term – continues to trump virtually everything else for conservatives, who use it frequently to protect business interests.

Perhaps the surprise of this term was Justice Kennedy’s joining the more liberal justices to require California to reduce its prison population, while the Court’s civil rights and criminal docket otherwise continued to be a “mixed bag,” see the articles below.

The Court for the first time has three women justices, with only the Chief Justice and Justice Alito in agreement more often (96% of the time) than newest Justices Kagan and Sotomayor.  Justice Kennedy remains the swing vote, and he cast the decisive vote in all twelve of the closely-divided cases where the four more liberal justices were on one side and the conservatives on the other.  Justice Kennedy voted with the majority most often, 94% of the time, with the consensus-building (and conservative) Chief Justice a close second at 91%.  Justice Kennedy’s votes, in particular, may be of momentous importance in the coming term.

- David Kelston -