Conservatism in the Supreme Court of the US
From StatWiki
[edit] Percentage of Conservative Rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States
- Court led by Chief Justice Earl Warren, from 1953 to 1969: 34% conservative rulings
- Court led by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, from 1969 to 1986: 55% conservative rulings
- Court led by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, from 1986 to 2005: 55% conservative rulings (steady from Burger's court)
- Court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., from 2006 to 2010: 58% conservative rulings
The highest percentage of conservative rulings since at least 1953 came in the session ending in 2009 when 65% of rulings were conservative.
"Four of the six most conservative justices of the 44 who have sat on the court since 1937 are serving now: Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Antonin Scalia and, most conservative of all, Clarence Thomas. (The other two were Chief Justices Burger and Rehnquist.) Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the swing justice on the current court, is in the top 10." - New York Times
"The Roberts court is finding laws unconstitutional and reversing precedent — two measures of activism — no more often than earlier courts. But the ideological direction of the court’s activism has undergone a marked change toward conservative results." - New York Times
[edit] Source
New York Times, Court Under Roberts Is Most Conservative in Decades, 7/24/2010
