This week, we’re beginning a new topic in our ongoing study of the Court’s decision making.  One often hears that unless there’s a dissent at the Appellate Court level, there’s no chance that the Supreme Court will agree to hear the case.  So – how true is that?  How much of the Supreme Court’s docket consists of divided decisions below?

In Table 670, we report the absolute numbers of divided decisions, year by year, on the civil side.  The Court decided twenty-one divided cases in 1990, fifteen in 1991, twenty-one in 1992, 8 in 1993, twenty-one in 1994, fifteen in 1995 and twelve in 1996.  The Court decided six civil cases which were divided below in 1997, eleven in 1998, fifteen in 1999, eight in 2000 and four in 2001.  The Court decided fourteen divided civil cases in 2002, seventeen in 2003, ten in 2004, eleven in 2005, twelve in 2006, fifteen in 2007, thirteen in 2008, ten in 2009 and twelve in 2010.  The Court decided ten divided civil cases in 2011, twelve in 2012, ten in 2013, four in 2014, fifteen in 2015, five in 2016 and ten in 2017.

In Table 671, we report the percentage of the Court’s civil docket accounted for by divided decisions from the Court of Appeal.  Each year from 1990 to 1996, between twenty and thirty percent of the Court’s civil docket was divided decisions below: 23.6% in 1990, 28.3% in 1991, 22.83% in 1992, 21.05% in 1993, 28% in 1994, 26.79% in 1995 and 21.82% in 1996.  Only 9.52% of the Court’s civil docket was divided decisions below in 1997, but 15.49% was in 1998.  In 1999, 36.59% of the Court’s cases were divided below.  In 2000, 21.05% of the Court’s civil cases were divided.  Only 7.84% were divided below in 2001, but 28% were in 2002 and 36.96% were in 2003.  In 2004, 18.52% of the Court’s civil cases were divided decisions below.  Divided decisions accounted for 22.92% in 2005 and 24.49% in 2006.

In 2007, 36.59% of the Court’s civil cases were divided below.  In 2008, 30.95% were.  The numbers fell to 24.39% in 2009, but in 2010, 36.36% were divided below.  In 2011, 26.32% of the Court’s civil cases were divided decisions below.  In the years since, the share accounted for by divided decisions has fluctuated from just below 20 to nearly forty percent – 30% in 2012, 29.41% in 2013, 14.81% in 2014, 34.09% in 2015, 17.86% in 2016 and 38.46% in 2017.

Join us back here next time as we turn our attention to the Court’s criminal docket.

Image courtesy of Flickr by HystericalMark (no changes).