One of the most frequent questions posed in response to articles regarding decisions by federal judges is: Who appointed him/her? In theory, that shouldn't matter — blindfolded Lady Justice and all that. In practice, all too often, it seems that it does.
But...maybe not quite as much as people assume. I decided it might be interesting to take a closer look at some of the statistics regarding the federal judiciary. Some of those stats will come as no surprise. Others, though, well, see what you think.
First, let's start with the Big Kahuna: the Supreme Court. We're barrelling headlong into "big" decision season, and the court is also dabbling in some emergency docket intrigue, so some added scrutiny seems warranted.
With Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson being the newest addition to the court, the current configuration of justices has been in place now for two full terms (2022 and 2023) and the 2024 term, which will wrap up in late June or early July. So, I'm going to confine my analysis to those three terms.
Takeaways:
Last note: The thornier/more political the issues in a case, the more likely we are to see a 6-3, party-line split or a 5-4 split. Still, the fact that those closer calls don't account for the majority of the decisions handed down by the court — even combining the 6-3 and 5-4 cases, that only accounts for 36 percent of the decisions — demonstrates that the court is not quite so partisan as many assume.
But, of course, they're the final destination for most cases. The bulk of the action takes place at the district court and appellate court levels.
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Next, we'll take a look at the makeup of the federal judiciary, beginning with the District Courts.
Takeaways/Notes:
Alright, but what about the Circuit Courts of Appeal? Well, we have that breakdown as well.
Takeaways/Notes:
As so many of the suits filed against the Trump administration since Trump retook office have been filed in the D.C. District Court, we've spent a good deal of time focusing on that court and its judges. Many of them have become household names — and there have understandably been questions about why certain judges seem to keep winding up with these high-profile cases.
In Part 2 of this "By the Numbers" analysis, we'll take a closer look at the makeup of the D.C. District Court, as well as the distribution of the cases.
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