This time, we’re reviewing the data on how frequently Justice Garman has voted with the majority during her tenure.  If you’re comparing this data to earlier posts, note one difference – here, we are looking at the entire civil and criminal caseloads, including unanimous decisions, rather than asking the percentage of divided decisions in which Justice Garman joined the minority.  Since the Supreme Court’s unanimity rate is nearly always quite high, we would expect the numbers to be in ninety-percent range.

Across her entire tenure, Justice Garman has voted with the majority in 92.88% of all civil cases.  (Note that we’re measuring complete agreement only – in other words, if the majority affirms and a Justice casts a split vote, the case is counted as not a majority vote).  In 2005, she was in the majority in every case.  She has been over 95% six times – 2001, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2015, and 2018.  She has been in the eighties only four times, and 2021, measured through last week, was the low at 84.62%.

As expected from our earlier data on dissents, Justice Garman has joined the majority a bit more often in criminal cases than in civil ones.  Since 2001, she has voted with the majority in 94.51% of criminal cases.  She has never been at 100% for a year, but has topped 95% nine times – 2001 (95%), 2004 (96.67%), 2005 (96.55%), 2007 (96.43%), 2009 (96.15%), 2010 (98.18%), 2012 (96.97%), 2015 (96.97%) and 2016 (97.14%).  Her lowest year to date was 2019, when she agreed with the majority in “only” 90.48% of criminal cases.

Join us back here next week as we conclude our six-part post on Justice Garman’s tenure.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Basheer Tome (no changes).