2004 Term Stats

The Harvard Law Review‘s annual statistics are out. Interestingly enough, Breyer and O’Connor were tied as the justice most likely to agree with the disposition of the case (something to keep in mind the next time someone argues that because the GOP approved Breyer the Dems are therefore obligated to approve Alito), with Kennedy of course a close third. (Also interestingly, Thomas and Stevens were tied for the least likely at 61.8%). If my very quick eyeballing is to be trusted, the most common pairing was Ginsburg and Souter, at 86.1%. Ginsburg and Thomas are the lowest, at 40.5%. (I could be wrong, but isn’t 40% pretty high for the least likely pairing on the modern Court?) Scalia and Thomas are at 80.2%; Thomas was actually a little more likely to agree with Rehnquist. As I’ve mentioned before, Thomas is not Scalia’s sock puppet; they’re a lot more different than people realize.

Richard Posner has written the foreword; seems interesting. I may have commentary when I get the chance to read it fully.