How Many Opinions Did Each Justice Write During OT 2021?
During the October 2021 Term, each Justices authored between five and eight majority opinions. The Chief assigned himself the most majority opinions (8) and Justice Kavanaugh had the fewest (5).
Justice Kavanaugh wrote the most concurring opinions with 8. Indeed, Kavanaugh beat Thomas and Alito, who each had 7. Five of the Kavanaugh concurrences were solo (Wooden, Ramirez, Shurtleff, Dobbs, and Biden v. Texas). The other three were joined by Barrett (Zubaydah), Gorsuch (Cummings), and Roberts (Bruen). We are well familiar by now with the Kavanaugh concurrence, which stakes out some middle ground to moderate a majority opinion.
Gorsuch wrote five concurrences. Unlike the Kavanaugh concurrences, many of the Gorsuch concurrences would push even further than did the majority. Some concurrences push the Court to the right (NFIB v. OSHA, Shurtleff, Egbert, West Virginia v. EPA). Other concurrences push the Court to the left (Wooden, Vaello Madero).
Justice Barrett wrote four concurrences. In Bruen, Barrett’s solo concurrence asked whether the originalist point of inquiry should be 1791 or 1868. Her other three separate writings came in Viking River Cruise (joined by Kavanaugh and Chief in part), Wooden (joined by Thomas), and Tsarnaev (joined by Gorsuch). Unlike Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, the Barrett concurrences do not seek to move the Court to the right, left, or middle. They usually raise some q
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