Rank the Justices from best to worst

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

It is interesting, although not too surprising, that most left-leaning posters tend to consider Sotomayor the best Justice, and right-leaning posters tend to consider her the worst Justice. Conversely, right-leaning posters rank Thomas relatively highly, but left-leaning posters tend to rank him at the very bottom.

I think it's far more interesting seeing more widespread agreement in ranking Alito quite low. I have some suspicions as to the reasonings. Thomas is actually pretty good on the Fourth Amendment, at least in terms of what constitutes a search. Look at a case like Kyllo v. United States.

Personally, I was undecided between Sotomayor and Kagan for my top spot, but I'm a huge fan of Sotomayor's Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.

I'm not convinced Alito has any actual judicial philosophy beyond being a partisan hack. This often puts him on the side of sound interpretation, but not always, and it's a very bad approach to take.

That's the thing, yes. Alito and Sotomayor are the two most shamelessly motivated and knee-jerk legal "reasoners" on the Court, but whereas Sotomayor can at least be argued to be motivated by bleeding-heart moral imperatives rather than pure my-team-ism, Alito comes across as a GOP party man plain and simple.

[Calthrina950]

It is interesting, although not too surprising, that most left-leaning posters tend to consider Sotomayor the best Justice, and right-leaning posters tend to consider her the worst Justice. Conversely, right-leaning posters rank Thomas relatively highly, but left-leaning posters tend to rank him at the very bottom.

I think it's far more interesting seeing more widespread agreement in ranking Alito quite low. I have some suspicions as to the reasonings. Thomas is actually pretty good on the Fourth Amendment, at least in terms of what constitutes a search. Look at a case like Kyllo v. United States.

Personally, I was undecided between Sotomayor and Kagan for my top spot, but I'm a huge fan of Sotomayor's Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.

I'm not convinced Alito has any actual judicial philosophy beyond being a partisan hack. This often puts him on the side of sound interpretation, but not always, and it's a very bad approach to take.

That's the thing, yes. Alito and Sotomayor are the two most shamelessly motivated and knee-jerk legal "reasoners" on the Court, but whereas Sotomayor can at least be argued to be motivated by bleeding-heart moral imperatives rather than pure my-team-ism, Alito comes across as a GOP party man plain and simple.

I think it's fair to say that for the "average" or "median" voter, these two are the worst members of their respective ideological wings.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

Anyway, I would rank Sotomayor fairly highly because I'm personally sympathetic to her worldview even though I think as a judge she's mediocre at best, Kagan above Breyer (and probably as the best current justice, which is really not saying much!) mostly because she's a better writer, Gorsuch fairly highly on rights issues and extremely poorly on regulatory issues, Roberts below Barrett because I have less than no respect for his "prestige of the Court" Optimate bullsh**t, and Alito at the absolute bottom, a political hatchet man like Thomas and without Thomas's saving grace of occasional quirkiness in Bill of Rights cases.

[Buffalo Mayor Young Kim]

1) Sotomeyer
2) Kagan

Jackson-Brown has no data on which to form an opinion.
The other 6 can’t be ranked because they just torture precedent (or in allot of cases don’t even bother explaining the reasoning and just ignore precedent and declare they didn’t in a paragraph or footnote) to meet their political opinions. Regardless of what I think of those opinions, I can’t evaluate them as a judge if they have no coherent body of jurisprudence beyond ruling what they think will have the best policy outcomes and working backwards from there.

[John Dule]

I'm not sure if there's been a single justice I've liked since the New Deal. I'll have to get back to you.

[Starry Eyed Jagaloon]

0. (Honestly KBJ, probably)
1. Kagan
2. Breyer
3. Sotomayor
4. Gorsuch
5. Roberts
6. Barrett
7. Kavanaugh
8. Thomas
9. Alito

[President Johnson]

1. KBJ (very likely, otherwise Breyer)
2. Kagan
3. Sotomayor
4. Roberts
5. Gorsuch
6. Barrett
7. Kavanaugh
8. Alito
9. Thomas

[Sub Jero]

Best to worst
Thomas
Alito
Barrett
Kavanaugh
Gorsuch
Roberts
Kagan
Sotomayor
Jackson

[revoLucian1776]

I'm a law student, and was a Republican until I switched to the LP, mostly to help some friends who wanted to run on the LP line, and being increasingly disaffected with the GOP and partisanship in DC.

I have a degree of respect for all the justices and think the integrity of the court should be protected as much as is reasonable.

When it comes to being a writer and being impactful, I found Antonin Scalia the greatest judge of my lifetime. Despite her personality cult, I find Ginsberg lacking. She's highly impressive in a lot of ways, but hasn't written many opinions of significance. She was a great lawyer and I have respect to anyone who can get treated for cancer and still show up to work on time.

I find Gorsuch to have been a good justice, and I have similar esteem for Alito, just based on their opinions, both write great opinions and are well-reasoned. I think Kagan is a solid justice as well.

Breyer is a decent judge in general.

I do not know enough to rank Barrett yet, but generally think she had a solid performance as a jurist before joining the highest court and it's nice to see someone who didn't go to Harvard or Yale (Notre Dame Law School is just as challenging).

I take issue with Kavanaugh Roberts, Thomas, and Sotomayor. Mostly for different reasons.
I find Kavanaugh and Roberts to be too "politiciany." They tend to like to form majorities and build consensus, which is great for a Senator, not what being a judge is about. That said, Roberts has written some very interesting opinions.

Sotomayor is a bit of an extremist and hasn't written many notable opinions and is becoming increasingly self-important as a figure on the American left, who are looking for a new RBG (again, great lawyer, great mind, mediocre judge). Sotomayor also has expressed admiration for Thurgood Marshall who was an abysmal judge. Marshall said "vote your conscience and let the law catch up." We don't need more shamelessly activist judges, and Sotomayor seems to have a similar mindset at times. She has bastardized the Constitution several times already.

Thomas has written the occasional interesting opinion, but not many. He tends to err away from concurring opinions, which is a disappointment. He was in Scalia's shadow among the right and that was a tall shadow to stand in and Scalia often took control of writing the more meaningful dissents and opinions than Thomas did, and since Scalia's passing, Thomas has continued to work less than he can and ought to.

Ketanji Brown-Jackson I know too little about, the fact people are fawning over her on here when she hasn't even joined the court is worrying. That said, if you want to know the kind of impact Scalia had, Even Brown-Jackson claims to be an originalist and likely will sit on the center-left like her mentor, Stephen Breyer.

That's my take.

[100% pro-life no matter what]

1. Alito (really only putting him above Thomas to thank him for writing the Dobbs leaked opinion)
2. Thomas
3. Barrett
4. Gorsuch
5. Kavanaugh
6. Roberts
7. Breyer
8. Kagan
9. Sotomayor

[Mr. Smith]

1. Breyer
2. Sotomayor
3. Roberts
4. Kagan
5. Barrett
6. Kavanaugh
7. Gorsuch
8. Thomas
9. Alito

[David Hume]

My ranking would look something like this:

1. Roberts
2. Kagan
3. Gorsuch
4. Kavanaugh
5. Barrett
6. Breyer
7. Thomas
8. Sotomayor
9. Alito

It is interesting, although not too surprising, that most left-leaning posters tend to consider Sotomayor the best Justice, and right-leaning posters tend to consider her the worst Justice. Conversely, right-leaning posters rank Thomas relatively highly, but left-leaning posters tend to rank him at the very bottom.

Since my No.1 priority is tough on crime, and to add to the "diversity" of this thread:
1, Alito
2, Thomas
3, Roberts
4, Gorsuch
5, Kanvanagh
6, Barrett
7, Breyer
8, Kagan
9, Sotomayor

[Skill and Chance]

1. Gorsuch
2. Kagan
3. Barrett
4. Kavanaugh
5. Roberts
6. Thomas
7. Breyer
8. Sotomayor
9. Alito

Textualism and minimalism are good. 

[Vespucci]

1. Kagan
2. Sotomayor
3. Breyer
4. Roberts
5. Gorsuch
6. Kavanaugh
7. Barrett
(huge gap)
8. Thomas
9. Alito

[wesmoorenerd]

1. Sotomayor
2. Kagan
3. Breyer
4. Roberts
5. Gorsuch
6. Barrett
7. Kavanaugh
8. Alito
9. Thomas

[Torie]

The two I hold in highest esteem are Roberts and Kagan.