In the 2021-22 term of the Court, 20 of the 66 cases were decided by 5-4 or 6-3 votes that involved issues with identifiable conservative/liberal positions. This is the first time including 6-3 decisions, the replacement of Ruth Ginsburg with Amy Barrett changing the dynamic of the Court to six conservative and only three liberal justices. The top row in the table displays the percentage of those 20 cases in which each justice voted for the discernible conservative position. The upper right matrix immediately below that top row shows how often each pair of justices voted together in those 20 cases. The lower left presents those numbers as percentages. Two distinct voting blocs emerge. Alito, Thomas, Barrett, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Roberts form the conservative bloc; Breyer, Kagan, and Sotomayor the liberal bloc. Only two cases resulted in decisions that might be interpreted as a preference for liberals in support of acts by the Biden administration, one involving mandatory vaccinations of health care workers and the other rescinding a Trump administration policy regarding immigration. Kavanaugh and Roberts joined with the liberal bloc on both of those decisions
Barrett is earning her stripes as a solid conservative, voting for the conservative position with Alito and Thomas in all 20 cases. The replacement of Breyer with Jackson for the 2022 term should keep the liberal bloc intact at three justices.
