Different SCOTUS Judges

[Intell]

Was wondering how they differ in their rulings, philosophies and principles, who's the most liberal and conservative?

[brucejoel99]

2 liberals (RBG & Sotomayor), 2 moderate liberals (Breyer & Kagan), a moderate conservative (Roberts), & 4 conservatives (Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh). The degree of how conservative the 4 judges are is less certain: Gorsuch, for example, has oftentimes dissented & shown himself to sometimes be less conservative & definitely less reactionary than the others.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

2 liberals (RBG & Sotomayor), 2 moderate liberals (Breyer & Kagan), a moderate conservative (Roberts), & 4 conservatives (Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh). The degree of how conservative the 4 judges are is less certain: Gorsuch, for example, has oftentimes dissented & shown himself to sometimes be less conservative & definitely less reactionary than the others.

Worth noting that Kavanaugh and Roberts vote together more than 90% of the time, more than any other pair.  According to one metric I saw Kavanaugh is about an inch to the left of Roberts.

[KaiserDave]

Gorsuch is interesting, how is he unique from the others?


Also, my commentary on the court is that Alito is basically a party line Republican.

[Sestak]

Gorsuch is interesting, how is he unique from the others?

On most cases, Gorsuch falls squarely in the “middle” of the court’s conservative bloc; not as right wing as Thomas or Alito but quite a bit more so than the Kavanaugh-Roberts duo. In a small subset of cases - most to do with criminal justice, however, (especially relating to immigration; Gorsuch has frequently been on the side of more due process rights for immigrant detainees) he becomes the swing justice.

This is actually not a new trend, as it happened a bit with his predecessor as well - there were certain 5-4 due process cases on which Scalia flipped to join the liberals, Breyer flipped to join the conservatives, and Clarence Thomas actually served as the swing vote.

[Intell]

Gorsuch is interesting, how is he unique from the others?

On most cases, Gorsuch falls squarely in the “middle” of the court’s conservative bloc; not as right wing as Thomas or Alito but quite a bit more so than the Kavanaugh-Roberts duo. In a small subset of cases - most to do with criminal justice, however, (especially relating to immigration; Gorsuch has frequently been on the side of more due process rights for immigrant detainees) he becomes the swing justice.

This is actually not a new trend, as it happened a bit with his predecessor as well - there were certain 5-4 due process cases on which Scalia flipped to join the liberals, Breyer flipped to join the conservatives, and Clarence Thomas actually served as the swing vote.

Eh why, especially eh why Breyer?

[Brother Jonathan]

Gorsuch is interesting, how is he unique from the others?

On most cases, Gorsuch falls squarely in the “middle” of the court’s conservative bloc; not as right wing as Thomas or Alito but quite a bit more so than the Kavanaugh-Roberts duo. In a small subset of cases - most to do with criminal justice, however, (especially relating to immigration; Gorsuch has frequently been on the side of more due process rights for immigrant detainees) he becomes the swing justice.

This is actually not a new trend, as it happened a bit with his predecessor as well - there were certain 5-4 due process cases on which Scalia flipped to join the liberals, Breyer flipped to join the conservatives, and Clarence Thomas actually served as the swing vote.

Eh why, especially eh why Breyer?

I think it just stems from his generally more pragmatic view of the law, really. He's more concerned with outcomes than other liberal justices or strict textualists.

[Del Tachi]

The notion of a 5-4 conservative "perma-majority" is complete hooey, the Court routinely cleaves and splits along other lines based on the specific questions at play.

Best SCOTUS judge currently sitting is Breyer, followed by Thomas.