The Supreme Court decided thirty-nine government and administrative law cases between 2014 and 2019: three in 2014, eleven per year in 2015 and 2016, nine in 2017, five in 2018 and none so far in 2019.

The Court decided twenty-two cases between 2014 and 2019 which were won by the defender of government authority versus seventeen cases won by the challengers.

Challengers to government actions once again had a hard time in cases they had won below, winning seven and losing eleven.

Defenders of government conduct and authority have fared even worse in recent years, winning seven cases they had won at the Court of Appeal while losing fourteen.

Overall, challengers to government action won twenty-one cases at the Supreme Court from 2014 to 2019 while losing eighteen.

The Court decided twenty-one cases involving the powers, conduct and duties of government entities and officials, twelve cases about private parties’ rights against the government, and six cases involving government entities’ procedures.

Justice Liu led the Court, casting twenty votes for challengers.  Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justices Chin and Corrigan cast nineteen votes for challengers.  Justice Werdegar cast sixteen votes, Justices Kruger and Cuellar cast fifteen votes apiece, Justice Baxter cast two votes and Justice Kennard cast one before her retirement.

Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justices Chin and Corrigan led the Court, casting twenty votes apiece against challengers to government entities and conduct.  Justice Liu cast nineteen votes and Justices Werdegar, Kruger and Cuellar cast eighteen votes each.  Justice Baxter cast one vote before his retirement.

Between 1990 and 2019, challengers to government conduct have won ninety-one cases involving government and administrative law issues while losing one hundred three – a winning percentage of 46.91%.

So which Justices were more likely to vote for challengers than the majority of the Court?  Justice Broussard voted for challengers in sixty percent of his government and administrative law cases.  Justice Liu did so 55.1% of the time.  Justice Panelli did so 54.05% of the time.  Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justice Corrigan voted for challengers in 53.52% of cases.  Chief Justice Lucas did so 49.09% of the time.  Justice Kennard supported challengers 48.05% of the time and Justice Mosk did in 46.99%.

Finally, we review the Justices who were less likely to vote for challengers than the Court as a whole.  Eight Justices were in the forties: Justices Arabian (46%), Kruger and Cuellar (45.45% each), Werdegar (44.44%), Baxter (41.67%), Chin (41.61%), Moreno (41.51%) and Chief Justice George (40.16%).  Justice Eagleson voted for challengers only 37.5% of the time, and Justice Brown did in 32.65% of her cases.

Join us back here next week as we begin a new topic in our analysis.

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