Supreme Court Hears Final Arguments of Term

Yesterday, Wednesday, April 29, 2009, was the final day at the U. S. Supreme Court for oral argument this term. With an expected flurry of opinions to issue in the following weeks, here is a look at what the Justices have done thus far.

Only one case is outstanding from the November sitting–Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts (07-591). Three cases are outstanding from December–Haywood v. Drown (07-10374); Ashcroft, Former ATT’Y Gen. v. Iqbal (07-1015); and AT&T Corp. v. Hulteen (07-543). Three cases are also outstanding from January–Coeur Alaska (07-984/07-990); Montejo v. Louisiana (07-1529); and Boyle v. U.S. (07-1309).

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has only authored two opinions thus far–Bartlett v. Strickland (07-689) and Negusie v. Mukasey (07-499)–but has most frequently joined the opinion of the Court. He’s dissented in just three cases–Arizona v. Gant (07-542); Ministry of Defense and Support for the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran v. Elahi (07-615); and the per curiam summary ruling in Spears v. United States (08-5721).

Justice John Paul Stevens is winning the contrarian award so far. He’s been in the majority least frequently–32 out of 48 opinions, or 66.7%–and has the highest rate of disagreement with other justices. He’s disagreed completely with Justice Antonin Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas in 48% of cases and with Chief Justice John G. Roberts and Justice Samuel A. Alito in 46%. In comparison, at this point in OT07, Justice Stevens had disagreed with the conservative justices in 21%-36% of cases. Justice David H. Souter is close behind–he’s been in the majority in only one more case than Justice Stevens and has similarly high rates of disagreement with the conservative justices.

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