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FACT BRIEF

Has the Supreme Court moved to the right since the appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh?

Wednesday, July 15, 2020
By Allegra Taylor
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NO

Any impact from the addition of two Republican-appointed justices in recent years was hard to discern from the Supreme Court's decisions in its just-concluded term. Though Republican-appointed judges now outnumber judges appointed by Democratic presidents, the Court handed down decisions that often defied expectations. “The data show a decline in 5-4 decisions, more agreement across party lines and a roughly 50-50 split in liberal and conservative decisions,” said Irv Gornstein, the executive director of Georgetown University’s Supreme Court Institute.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts, appointed by President George W. Bush, took observers by surprise when he voted to strike down a Louisiana anti-abortion law and to bar the Trump Administration's effort to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Washington University: Report on 2019 Supreme Court term
Axios: Leanings of Supreme Court Justices
SCOTUS Blog: 2019 Term Cases
New York Times: Supreme Court moves to the center
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Gigafact
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.