SCOTUSblog’s Kedar Bhatia released his annual Stat Pack for the October Term 2015 last week – an invaluable resource for the Supreme Court community.  You can access the Stat Pack in full, here.  Here are my top ten takeaways:

  • Merits Stage Cases (80 total)
    • Opinions were released in just 63 cases this term. Four cases were affirmed by a 4-4 vote (due to the death of Justice Scalia) while the remaining 13 cases were summarily reversed.
  • Circuit Scorecard
    • The 11th Circuit was reversed 100% of the time (3/3).
    • The 1st, 2nd, and D.C. Circuits fared the best upon review, and were affirmed in 67% of cases.
  • Merits Cases by Vote Split
    • Unanimous 9-0 opinions were released in 48% of cases this term, up from 47%, 46%, and 45%, respectively, over the prior three terms. Just 5% of cases this term ended in a split 5-4 vote, down from 19%, 20%, and 20% over the past three terms, respectively.
  • Make-Up of the Merits Docket
    • Civil cases once again composed the bulk of the Court’s merits docket (64%) while paid (booklet) petitions accounted for 84% of the Court’s docket
  • On Writ of Certiorari to …
    • 72% of all cases were appealed from the United States Courts of Appeals. Just 23% of cases arose from state courts (the remaining were original actions or appeals from three-judge panels).
  • Total Opinion Authorship
    • Justice Thomas authored the most total opinions this term (39) while the departed Justice Scalia authored the fewest total opinions (5). Justices Kennedy (12) and Kagan (12) penned the next fewest.
  • Frequency in the Majority
    • Justice Kennedy found himself in the majority a remarkable 98% of the time. Justice Thomas was in the majority least frequently (72% of cases).
  • Justice Agreement
    • Justices Kennedy and Kagan found themselves in agreement in 94.7% of all cases. Justices Thomas and Ginsburg found themselves in agreement least frequently (61.8% of all cases).
  • Oral Argument – Justices
    • Justice Scalia averaged the most questions per oral argument this term (21.6) while Justice Thomas again chose not to ask a question during proceedings.
  • Oral Argument – Advocates
    • 71% of advocates had prior experience in the Office of the Solicitor General.
    • Just 18% of all advocates were female.
    • Harvard Law accounted for the most appearances (37) while Yale Law was second (30).

This information cited with permission via Kedar Bhatia, Final October Term 2015 Stat Pack, SCOTUSblog (Jun. 29, 2016, 11:25 PM), http://www.scotusblog.com/2016/06/final-october-term-2015-stat-pack/