The party alignment of the Supreme Court remained at six Republican appointees and one Democratic appointee from 2000 through 2009.  Across the entire period, the unanimity rate was 66.05% – twenty points higher than the unanimity rate for the 1990s.  The unanimity rate for 2000 was only 48.98%.  It rose to 56.25% for 2001.  After that, the unanimity rate was comparable each year – 60.42% in 2002, 61.36% in 2003, 62.36% in 2003, 62.26% in 2004, 78.43% in 2005, 73.58% in 2006 and 60.71% in 2007.  In 2008, the unanimity was 77.5%.  It increased to a high of 84.09% in 2009.

Join us back here next week as we continue our review of the Court’s unanimity rate data.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Nick Amoscato (no changes).