Researchers show overall Supreme Court ideology 'falls squarely on the right'

04 July 2023

Two university researchers — Andrew D. Martin at Washington University in St. Louis and Kevin Quinn at Emory University in Atlanta — have devised a system for gauging how liberal or conservative the overall "ideology" of the U.S. Supreme Court is. Their research spans an 86-year period, starting in 1937 and continuing into 2023.

The Martin-Quinn Scores bear out what many Americans have been thinking: the Amy Coney Barrett-era Roberts Court of 2022 and 2023 favors an overall hard-right "ideology" and has been moving U.S. law in that direction.

Axios' April Rubin, in a report published on July 3, says of the Martin/Quinn system, "The score is calculated using data from each Supreme Court term and measured on an 'ideological continuum.' The current estimates are preliminary, and final versions of the scores will be available later in the summer."

"Preliminary date" from Martin and Quinn, Rubin reports, shows that the Supreme Court "continued to lean conservative during its most recent term."

"After overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, the Court continued to push American law toward the right — including in its historic decisions last week on affirmative action and gay rights," Rubin notes. "Driving the news: Preliminary data following a contentious 2022-23 Supreme Court term shows Justice Brett Kavanaugh remained the Court's 'median justice.' That means the Court is conservative enough that its center falls squarely on the right."

Rubin adds, "Justice Samuel Alito became the Court's most conservative member, surpassing Justice Clarence Thomas for the first time since both have served on the High Court."

Although Democrats have won the popular vote in seven of the United States' last eight presidential elections, only one-third of the Supreme Court is comprised of Democratic appointees — who include Joe Biden appointee Ketanji Brown Jackson and Barack Obama appointees Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.

Rubin observes that Jackson, according to the Martin-Quinn Scores, has been "on the liberal side" but "less so" than Sotomayor or Kagan.

"Historically," Rubin reports, "the Court's most conservative median justice was Byron White in 1988, with a Martin-Quinn score of 1.096, compared with Kavanaugh's 0.524 this term."

Axios' full report is available at this link.

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