"Court Leanings"
Assessing the "Conservative" and "Liberal" Balance of the U.S. Supreme Court

Alexander Hamilton, famed Founding Father and Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington, is quoted as saying that “the courts must declare the sense of the law;…to moderate the immediate mischiefs of those [laws] which may have been passed…and operate as a check…” upon both the legislative and executive bodies. This is a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of "Nine Old Men in Robes". 

What is the "history" of their "moderation" of the laws? And furthermore, do the justices enter the position with a predisposed idea of the law, or do they "mature" over time, like a fine wine?

We'll be examining the political leanings, either "Conservative" or "Liberal" of the justices over time and analyzing the extent of political leanings in decision making. You'll be responding to various statements, using the data found below, and then examining our current (9) Justices in depth!

Let's get started!

Part I: Historical "Leanings"

For our analysis, we will be using the website found here, titled, the "Ideological History of the Supreme Court". This chart shows the political leanings of the Chief Justices and the (8) Associate Justices from the 1937 to 2007. We'll talk about why the year "1937" is important later, but for now, just understand that that was the year when the Supreme Court "reinvented" itself.

Let's get a few things understood first. Refer the to chart above for reference:

• The "colors" correspond to "political leaning". As you can probably guess, red means "Conservative" (like a Republican...) and blue means "Liberal" (like a Democrat...)

• The "top row" is the "Chief Justice"; below that are the (8) Associate Justices. You can see a "close up" of the chart above. Charles Evan Hughes was the Chief Justice up until 1940. Then Harlan Stone took over. NOTE: It doesn't matter who these men are...they're just random guys to you :-) You can see the same for the Associate Justices: James Clark McReynolds was a justice up until 1940 and then Wiley Blount Ruthledge took over, after a year of vacancy where the seat was empty...

• At the bottom, we see the "Presidential Party" and which party controlled Congress. Remember back to our unit on the Legislative Branch: it's a good thing when the President and the Congress come from the same party, as they'll get a lot of stuff done!
• Above that spectrum, you see the "Court Average". What means, that for that one specific year, the court measured a certain amount on the "Ideology Scale". For reference, a (-) number means they were "leaning" Liberal; a (+) number equates to a more Conservative leaning. And remember the colors too!
• At the bottom of the spectrum you can see some major court cases, like Korematsu v. The United States shown above in the year 1943. 
• That's it for now. Remember to click here to get started! And then, respond to the prompts found on your worksheet. 

Before you start, be sure to "adjust" the "Compare Ideology" drop-down menu and select "Overall (colors normalized). The settings are defaulted at "Overall", but we want the colors "normalized" to give them a darker shading. Don't worry about "why"...just do it :-)

Make sure your box looks like the sample on the right. Then you can proceed...

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NOTE: When you examine today's court, note that Justices Stevens and Souter have been "replaced" since this chart ended in 2007. David Souter, who leaned more liberal, was replaced by another liberal, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, so your "Court Leanings" aren't messed up there. Same for John Paul Stevens, who leaned more liberal, and who was replaced by another liberal, Justice Elena Kagen. In sum, your "Court Leanings" won't change. 

Part II: Who's Your Friend?

We currently have the following (9) Supreme Court Justices

1. Chief Justice John G. Roberts, 
2. Justice Clarence Thomas,
3. Justice Antonin Scalia, ​
4. Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, 
5. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
6. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, 
7. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, 
8. Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., 
9. Justice Elena Kagan

From the image above, you can see that the three (3) females ​are more "liberal" (more like President Obama, right now), Justices Breyer and Kennedy are more towards the "center", and the four (4) other men are much more "conservative" (more like the Republicans, today.)

Why are certain justices more liberal or conservative? It has to do with how they "rule" on certain issues! A liberal judge, for example, tends to favor more minority rights, women's reproductive rights, and environmental rights, while conservative judges tend to mirror the beliefs of the Republican Party today: pro-Christian, pro-gun, pro-military, and pro-business.

So...who's your friend? In other words, which judge(s) do you like the most? Click here to access a website where you can find how all the judges "voted" on certain issues. Then, fill out the backside of your worksheet from above! Have fun!