Last week, we reviewed the year by year data, tracing the changes in the Court’s unanimity rate between 1990 and 2017.  But of course, that leaves out an important variable – a 6-1 decision tells us something very different from a 4-3 decision.  So how was the Court’s dissent distributed across one, two and three dissenter cases?  For the entire twenty-eight years, 16.27% of the Court’s 1,223 civil cases had one dissenter, 11.77% had two and 11.69% had three dissenters.

For most of the period between 1990 and 1996, all three types of dissent were ahead of the long-term trend.  One dissenter cases were 28.21% of the civil docket in 1990, 17.5% in 1991, 23.08% in 1992, 32.61% in 1993, 27.45% in 1994, 22.81% in 1995 and 20% in 1996.  Two dissenter cases were 10.26% in 1990, 30% in 1991, 17.31% in 1992, 10.87% in 1993, 15.69% in 1994 and 19.3% in 1995.  The Court had no two-dissenter civil cases in 1996.  Three dissenter cases were 20.51% of the civil docket in 1990, 7.5% in 1991, 15.38% in 1992, 15.22% in 1993, 11.76% in 1994, 10.53% in 1995 and 23.33% in 1996.

Dissent was down just a bit in civil cases between 1997 and 2003.  One dissenter cases were over the long-term average for four of the seven years, two dissenter cases were above average for five of the seven years, and three dissenter cases were above trend for four of seven years.  One dissenter cases were 24% of the civil docket in 1997, 25.93% in 1998, 7.69% in 1999, 22.45% in 2000, 14.58% in 2001, 20.83% in 2002 and 9.09% in 2003.  Two dissenter cases were 16% in 1997, 18.52% in 1998, 25% in 1999, 12.24% in 2000, 20.83% in 2001, 10.42% in 2002 and 13.64% in 2003.  Three dissenter cases were 24% of the civil docket in 1997, 9.26% in 1998, 13.46% in 1999, 16.33% in 2000, 8.33% in 2001 and 2002 and 15.91% in 2003.

Dissent fell sharply during the years 2004 to 2010.  Three dissenter cases were over the long-term trend in three of the seven years, but one and two dissenter cases never were.  One dissenter cases were 15.09% of the docket in 2004, 7.84% in 2005, 13.21% in 2006, 10.71% in 2007, 5% in 2008, 9.09% in 2009 and 7.14% in 2010.  Two dissenter cases were 3.77% in 2004, 7.84% in 2005, 3.77% in 2006, 8.93% in 2007, 7.5% in 2008, 4.55% in 2009 and 2.38% in 2010.  Three dissenter cases were 18.87% of the civil docket in 2004, 5.88% in 2005, 9.43% in 2006, 19.64% in 2007, 10% in 2008, 2.27% in 2009 and 11.9% in 2010.

Dissent has been well below the long-term average for nearly all of the years 2011 to 2017 – one and two dissenter cases were above average only once, and three dissenter cases have never been. One dissenter cases were 18.18% of the civil docket in 2011, 15.38% in 2012, 9.38% in 2013, 8.7% in 2014, 6.25% in 2015, 11.11% in 2016 and 9.52% in 2017.  Two dissenter cases were 3.03% in 2011, 11.54% in 2012, 6.25% in 2013, 13.04% in 2014, 6.25% in 2015, 11.11% in 2016 and 7.14% in 2017.  Three dissenter cases were 3.03% of the civil docket in 2011, 6.25% in 2013, 8.7% in 2014, 11.11% in 2016 and 7.14% in 2017.  There were no three dissenter cases in 2012 or 2015.

Join us back here tomorrow as we take a closer look at dissent in the criminal docket – and Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Image courtesy of Flickr by Ken Lund (no changes).