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Last week, we reviewed the frequency with which pro tem Supreme Court Justices voted with the Court’s majority in criminal cases between 2000 and 2007.  Today, we review the same data between 2008 and 2016.

Seventy-eight pro tem votes were filed between 2008 and 2016.  For the period, 92.31% of the votes among pro tem Justices were cast with the majority.  But permanent members of the Court were substantially ahead, averaging 95% of the votes with the majority among permanent Justices.  One pro tem Justice joined a dissent in 2010.  One wrote a dissent in 2011.  In 2014, one pro tem Justice joined a concurrence, one wrote a dissent and three joined in dissents.

For 2008 and 2009, one hundred percent of the pro tem Justices voted with the majority, to 96.75% in 2008 and 96.78% in 2009.  In 2010, none of the Court’s pro tem Justices voted with the majority, but 94.52% of the permanent Justices did.  For 2011, 97.5% of the Court’s pro tem Justices voted with the majority.  Slightly fewer – 93.28% – of the Court’s permanent Justices voted with the majority.  In 2012, all of the pro tem Justices voted with the majority, and 94.25% of the permanent Justices did.  In 2013 and 2014, there were no pro tem votes in criminal cases.  Ninety-six percent of permanent Justices voted with the majority, and 95.06% of permanent Justices did in 2014.  For 2015, 85.71% of pro tem Justices voted with the majority.  Among permanent Justices, 93.83% did so.  Finally, no pro tem Justices voted on the criminal side in 2016, but 98.08% of permanent Justices did.

Table 164

 

Join us back here next Thursday as we turn our attention to a new question in our ongoing examination of the Court’s decision making.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Andrew E. Larsen (no changes).