Washington, D.C. — Veteran Supreme Court advocate Paul Clement on Thursday touted a "remarkable achievement" by the justices in deciding more than 50% of their cases unanimously during the 2022-23 term.
Clement, who has argued more than 100 cases before the high court and served as U.S. Solicitor General during former President George W. Bush's second term, said the Supreme Court deciding 30 out of 58 cases unanimously last term defies the idea of a "dysfunctional, ethically challenged court."
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The seasoned attorney spoke before a gathering of current and aspiring attorneys hosted by the Federalist Society and held at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., discussing the top cases decided during the past term, from consequential election law issues and the overturning of affirmative action to the overruling of President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan.
"That more than 50% unanimous number is all the more impressive when you remember how the court gets this paltry 58 cases," Clement said. "The fact that in essentially half of the cases that the lower courts have divided, the Supreme Court itself is unanimous at least as to the disposition, is a pretty remarkable fact."
While the power of the 6-3 Republican-appointed majority was on full display in 2021-22, with the conservative majority aligning in 14 of 58 decisions including the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the most recent term saw only five cases split along ideological lines.
"You just wouldn't get this number out of any of the end-of-term wrap-ups from the major newspapers in this country that were quick to remind us of how divisive the court is and how unpleasant some of the exchanges between majority and the dissents have been and how conservative this Roberts court is," Clement said.
Clement also noted that with the addition of the newest Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on the bench, she fulfilled one of the "oldest adages in Washington," the notion that adding even a single new justice changes the entire court.
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For example, Jackson set records as a junior justice who spoke more words during oral arguments in her first term than several of the more recent justices before her. Clement said that aspect "certainly affected" the dynamic of oral arguments from a practical standpoint, adding it has "really made the arguments much longer.
"If you essentially add a new personality to that mix, it's not just that there's one new justice, it changes the personalities and the interactions among them between the justices in a way that's pretty profound," Clement said.