Between 2006 and 2013, the Supreme Court decided forty-five cases involving government and administrative law issues: nine in 2006, ten in 2007, five in 2008, four in 2009, four in 2010, two in 2011, four in 2012 and seven in 2013.

The caseload leaned a little bit towards cases won by the defenders of government actions below – defenders won twenty-four cases at the Court of Appeal before the Supreme Court granted review, while challengers won eighteen.

Challengers to government actions who had won at the Court of Appeal won seven cases at the Supreme Court while losing eleven.

Defenders of government actions, on the other hand, split their cases evenly, winning twelve and losing twelve at the Supreme Court.

Overall challengers to government entities and actions won eighteen cases at the Supreme Court while losing twenty-four.

Twenty-one cases involved the powers, duties and actions of government officials and entities.  Sixteen involved procedural questions.  Seven involved private actors’ rights against the government.

Turning to the individual Justices’ votes, Justice Kennard cast twenty-three votes for challengers to government actions.  Justice Werdegar cast twenty votes.  Justices Chin and Corrigan had nineteen apiece, followed by Justice Baxter at eighteen, Chief Justice George and Justice Moreno at thirteen, and Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justice Liu at seven votes.

Justices Baxter and Chin led with twenty-three votes each against challengers, followed by Justice Werdegar (twenty votes), Justice Kennard (nineteen votes), Chief Justice George and Justice Moreno (eighteen votes), Justice Corrigan (thirteen votes), and Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justice Liu (three votes each).

Join us back here next time as we review the last several years’ data.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Gabriel Millos (no changes).

The Court’s docket of cases involving government entities and government/administrative law was down significantly from sixty-nine between 1990 and 1997 to forty-four from 1998 to 2005.  The Court decided four cases in 1998, five in 1999, seven in 2000, five in 2001, three in 2002, six in 2003, ten in 2004 and four in 2005.

Who won at the Court of Appeal among the government/admin cases the Court heard and decided?  For the most part, challengers did.  Challengers won twenty-six of the cases while defenders of government conduct won only seventeen.

Once those challengers who had won below reached the Supreme Court, they generally lost – for the entire period, challengers who won below won seven at the Supreme Court while losing twenty-two.

There was still some evidence suggesting that the Court was accepting cases in order to reverse – defenders of government action and authority who had won below won six at the Supreme Court while losing ten.

Disregarding who won below, challengers did fairly well at the Supreme Court, winning twenty-four while losing twenty-one.

The Court decided twenty-seven cases involving the power and actions of government officials and entities, ten involving the government’s procedures and only seven involving a private party’s rights against the government.

Justice Kennard led, casting twenty-one votes across the eight years for the positions of challengers to government action.  Justice Werdegar had nineteen votes, Chief Justice George had eighteen votes and Justices Chin and Baxter had sixteen and fifteen, respectively.  Justice Brown cast twelve votes, Justice Moreno cast nine and Justice Mosk cast eight votes.

Justices Baxter, Brown and Chin led during these years, casting twenty-six votes apiece against challengers to government actions.  Chief Justice George had twenty-five votes, Justice Werdegar had twenty-three and Justice Kennard cast twenty-two votes.  Justice Moreno cast thirteen votes for defenders of government actions and Justice Mosk cast eight votes.

Join us back here next time as we carry the analysis through to this year.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Brandon W Mason (no changes).

This time, we’re turning our attention to a new area of the Court’s civil docket – cases involving the conduct, authority and procedures of government agencies and officers.  For our purposes in this and the three posts following, we’re defining “government” parties as anyone whose claim or defense is based upon the powers or conduct of government entities – for example, if a private entity was suing based on a claim whose validity depended on whether an action of the Los Angeles City Council was within its authority, that entity would be classed as “government” here.

Between 1990 and 1997, the Supreme Court decided sixty-nine cases involving government and administrative law – eight in 1990, nine in 1991, eleven in 1992, six in 1993, eight in 1994, and nine per year in 1995, 1996 and 1997.

Most of the Court’s cases were won by the challenger at the Court of Appeal: forty-one challengers’ wins to twenty-seven cases won by the defender of government actions.

Challengers of government actions who had won at the Court of Appeal had a very rough time at the Supreme Court between 1990 and 1997: nine wins and thirty-two losses.

Governmental parties and defenders of government action lost most of the time too, suggesting that during these years, the Court was generally taking these cases to reverse.  Defenders won eight and lost nineteen.

Combining the two tables so as to remove the issue of who won below, we find that challengers to government action won twenty-eight cases while losing forty.

What kinds of issues was the Court dealing with?  The Court decided thirty-five cases involving the powers and actions of government entities, twenty involving private individuals’ rights against government entities or officials and fourteen cases involving government entities’ procedure.

Justice Mosk cast the highest number of votes for challengers to government action and authority at thirty-one.  Justice Kennard was next with twenty-nine votes.  Chief Justice Lucas cast twenty-seven votes, Justice Baxter had twenty-five, Justice Arabian had twenty-three votes, and Chief Justice George and Justice Panelli had twenty each.  Justices Werdegar and Broussard cast nine votes for challengers, Justice Brown had four, Justices Chin and Eagleson had three each, and Justice Kaufman had one.

Justice Kennard cast thirty-nine votes between 1990 and 1997 against challengers to government action and authority.  Justice Mosk had thirty-six votes, Justice Baxter thirty-four and Chief Justice George cast thirty-three votes.  Two Justices were in the twenties: Chief Justice Lucas with twenty-eight votes and Justice Arabian with twenty-seven.  Justice Werdegar cast nineteen votes against challengers, Justice Panelli had seventeen, Justice Chin had eleven, Justice Brown cast seven, Justice Broussard six and Justice Eagleson five.

Join us next time as we turn to the years 1998 through 2005.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Adrian Clark (no changes).

The Court has decided only three workers compensation cases since 2013 – two in 2015 and one in 2018.

Two of the Supreme Court’s three workers compensation cases were won by defendants at the Court of Appeal.

The two defendants who had won their cases at the Court of Appeal evenly split at the Supreme Court – one win and one loss.

The one plaintiff who had won below lost at the Supreme Court.

Overall, defendants have won two and lost one between 2014 and 2019.

Of the Court’s three workers compensation cases, one involved workers comp exclusivity, one involved compensability and one involved a procedural question.

Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justices Chin, Corrigan, Liu and Cuellar cast two votes each for defendants between 2014 and 2019.  Justices Werdegar and Kruger cast one each.

Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justices Werdegar, Chin, Corrigan, Liu, Kruger and Cuellar all cast one vote against a workers compensation defendant in 2015.

Finally, we combine all the Justice by Justice voting data.  We compare those numbers to the overall percentage of cases won by defendants and determine which Justices were more and less likely to vote for defendants than the Court as a whole.  Seven Justices have voted for defendants in workers compensation cases at a higher rate than defendants’ overall winning percentage: Justice Brown (76.47%), Justices Kruger and Cuellar (66.67% each), Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye (60%), Justice Chin (57.69%), Justice Baxter (56.25%) and Chief Justice George (53.57%).

Eleven Justices have been less likely to vote for defendants in workers comp cases than defendants were to win the case: Chief Justice Lucas and Justices Broussard, Arabian and Moreno (50% each), Justice Kennard (48.48%), Justices Panelli, Werdegar and Corrigan (44.44% each), Justice Liu (40%), Justice Mosk (37.5%) and Justice Eagleson (0%).

Join us back here next Thursday as we turn our attention to another topic.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Don DeBold (no changes).

 

 

The Court decided six workers compensation cases from 2006 to 2013 – two in 2007, one each in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2013.

The Court’s light workers compensation docket consisted of four cases won by the plaintiffs below and only two involving defendants’ wins for these years.

Defendants who won Workers Compensation cases below won zero and lost two during these years.

Plaintiffs who won their workers compensation cases at the Court of Appeal had a rough time during these years – two wins and five losses before the Supreme Court.

Overall, defendants won two cases while losing three during these years.

The Court decided three cases involving compensability during these years, two involving procedural issues and one involving the powers and structure of the Workers Compensation Commission.

 

Between 2006 and 2013, Justices Kennard, Baxter, Werdegar, Chin and Corrigan cast two votes each for workers compensation defendants each.  Chief Justice George, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justice Moreno all cast one vote for defendants.

Five Justices cast four votes each against workers compensation defendants: Kennard, Baxter, Werdegar, Chin and Corrigan.  Chief Justice George and Justice Moreno cast three votes against defendants.  Justice Liu cast two votes against defendants and Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye cast one.

Join us back here tomorrow as we wrap our review of the workers compensation cases.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Mike Baird (no changes).

 

Today, we’re continuing our review of the Supreme Court’s workers comp cases, turning our attention to the cases decided between 1998 and 2005.

In all, the Court decided exactly the same number of cases 1998-2005 that it had 1990-1997: fourteen.  The Court decided three cases in 1998, one in 1999, two in 2000, six in 2001, none in 2002, one in 2003, zero in 2004 and one case in 2005.

Between 1990 and 2005, the Court decided fourteen plaintiffs’ wins from the Court of Appeal, fourteen defendants’ wins.  The 1998-2005 spread was six plaintiffs’ wins, eight defendants’ wins.

Defendants who won at the Court of Appeal did fairly well at the Supreme Court, winning six while losing four.

Plaintiffs who won at the Court of Appeal, on the other hand, won only once as compared to three losses.

Overall, disregarding who won at the Court of Appeal, defendants in workers comp cases won nine and lost five at the Supreme Court between 1998 and 2005.

Once again, procedural issues dominated – the Court decided seven cases mainly involving procedural issues, three which related to the powers and structure of the Workers Compensation Commission, and two each involving workers comp exclusivity and compensability issues.

Turning to the Justices’ voting records, during these years Justice Brown cast eleven votes for workers comp defendants.  Justices Chin and Baxter cast nine votes apiece, Justice Kennard cast eight votes, Justice Werdegar cast seven, Chief Justice George cast six, Justice Mosk cast five votes and Justice Moreno cast two votes.

Justice Werdegar led with eight votes against workers compensation defendants.  Chief Justice George and Justice Kennard were next with six votes apiece.  Justices Mosk, Baxter and Chin cast five votes apiece.  Justice Brown cast three votes and Justice Moreno had none.

Join us back here next week as we finish our analysis.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Sarah and Jason (no changes).

As we continue our issue-by-issue examination of the Court’s voting patterns in various areas of law, this week and next we’re addressing the Court’s workers compensation decisions.

Between 1990 and 1997, the Court decided fourteen workers compensation cases in all – one in 1990, two each in 1991 and 1992, five in 1993, none in 1994, one each in 1995 and 1996 and two in 1997.

By a narrow margin, the Court’s decisions more often arose from cases won by the plaintiffs at the Court of Appeal: eight won by plaintiff, six by defendant.

Defendants who had won at the Court of Appeal had a rough time defending those wins.  For the eight years, those defendants had two wins and four losses.

Plaintiffs had a sub-.500 winning percentage too.  Plaintiffs who had won the case at the Court of Appeal won three times at the Supreme Court, losing five cases.  Taken together, these charts imply that the Supreme Court was frequently taking workers compensation cases during this period in order to reverse.

Combining the data from the last two tables, defendants overall had six wins and eight losses in workers compensation cases at the Supreme Court.

So what types of issues was the Court deciding in its workers compensation cases?  For the most part, procedural cases: nine cases involved procedural issues, two were workers comp exclusivity cases, two more involved the powers and structure of the Workers Compensation Commission and one involved the judiciary’s role in the process.

Below, we report the yearly votes of each individual Justices for the positions of defendants in workers compensation cases.  Chief Justice George and Justice Baxter each cast seven votes for defendants.  Justice Kennard cast six votes, Chief Justice Lucas and Justice Arabian cast five votes, Justice Panelli and Justice Mosk both cast four votes, Justices Werdegar, Brown and Chin cast two votes apiece and Justice Broussard cast one.

As for votes against defendants in workers comp cases, Justice Mosk led with ten.  Justice Kennard cast seven votes, Chief Justice Lucas and Justices Panelli, Eagleson and Baxter cast five each, Chief Justice George cast four votes, Justice Werdegar had two and Justices Broussard, Brown and Chin cast one apiece.

Join us back here tomorrow as we continue our analysis of the Court’s workers compensation decisions.

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Today, we’re finishing our trip through the Court’s docket of civil constitutional law cases, 1990-2018.

Civil constitutional law cases have been comparatively uncommon on the Court’s docket from 2014 to 2019.  The Court has heard only fifteen cases in all: one in 2014, two each in 2015 and 2016, five in 2017, three in 2018 and two in 2019.

By a narrow eight to six margin, the Court has agreed to hear more plaintiffs’ wins from the Court of Appeal than defendants’ wins.

Defendants have had a rough time once again in the relatively few cases they won below, suggesting that many of the cases were taken in order to reverse.  From 2014 to 2019, defendants arriving at the Court on a win won only one of their cases while losing five.

Plaintiffs, on the other hand, nearly always succeeded in defending their Court of Appeal wins.  From 2014 to 2019, plaintiffs who won below were seven wins and one loss at the Supreme Court.

Combining the data from these two charts, we find that defendants overall in the past five years are two wins and twelve losses at the Supreme Court.  Across the entire twenty-nine years, defendants have won fifty-three cases while losing seventy-seven, a winning percentage of 40.77%.

Looking at the specific issues the Court addressed during these years, we find five due process cases, four preemption cases, three cases about the organization and authority of governmental entities and officials, two cases about equal protection and one First Amendment case.

Looking at the individual Justices’ votes for defendants in civil constitutional law cases, we find four each from Justices Liu and Kruger, three each from Justices Chin and Corrigan, two each by Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justice Cuellar and one from Justice Werdegar.

As for votes against constitutional law defendants, we have the Chief Justice and Justices Corrigan and Cuellar with twelve each.  Justices Chin and Liu have cast eleven apiece.  Justice Kruger has nine, Justice Werdegar has seven, and Justices Baxter and Groban have one apiece.

So where does all this leave us?  As we noted above, defendants since 1990 have won only 40.77% of their civil constitutional law cases at the Supreme Court.  Our table below reports the Justices who voted for defendants in more than 40.77% of their constitutional law cases.  Justice Kaufman voted for the defendant in the only civil constitutional law case in which he participated before his January 31, 1990 retirement.  Justice Brown supported defendants 61.11% of the time.  Justice Kennard did 50.77% of the time.  Justice Eagleson supported defendants in 50% of his cases.  Justice Panelli was at 46.67%, Justice Chin is at 45%, Justice Baxter was at 44.92% and Chief Justice Lucas was at 41.86%.

Finally, we have the Justices who have been less likely to support defendants in these cases than the Court as a whole.  Chief Justice George voted for defendants 39.64% of the time.  Six more Justices were in the thirties – Justice Werdegar (39.42%), Arabian (38.46%), Moreno (36.73%), Corrigan (34.09%), Mosk (31.51%) and Kruger (30.77%).  Justices Broussard (23.08%) and Liu (21.05%) were in the twenties.  Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye has supported defendants in civil constitutional law cases only fifteen percent of the time.  Justice Cuellar has voted for defendants in 14.29% of his cases.  Justice Groban voted against the defendant in the only civil constitutional law case he has participated in since joining the Court.  Note the division among current members of the Court: six Justices are statistically less likely to support a defendant in a civil constitutional law case than defendants’ overall winning percentage, and only one is more likely to do so.  This suggests that defendants’ winning percentage in these cases is likely to decline further in the next several years.

Join us back here later this week as we turn to a new topic.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Becky Matsubara (no changes).

 

Constitutional law cases were down sharply as a share of the Supreme Court’s civil docket between 2006 and 2013, with the Court deciding only thirty cases – five in 2006, nine in 2007, two in 2008, two in 2009, four in 2010, five in 2011, one in 2012 and two in 2013.

Although the docket was evenly divided between plaintiffs’ and defendants’ wins from 1998 to 2005, between 2006 and 2013, the Court decided substantially more cases won below by the defendant (fifteen cases) than by the plaintiff (nine cases).

Defendants who won at the Court of Appeal had a very rough time at the Supreme Court during these years, winning four while losing twelve.

Plaintiffs who won at the Court of Appeal split eight decisions at the Supreme Court, winning four and losing four.

Overall, disregarding which side won below, defendants in civil constitutional law cases won seven while losing seventeen between 2006 and 2013.

Next, we review the issues the Court decided.  Across the period, the Court handed down nine due process decisions, eight involving government organization, powers and officers, four each on preemption and the First Amendment, and two each on judicial issues and equal protection.

The Justice most frequently voting with defendants in civil constitutional law cases was Justice Chin at thirteen votes.  Justices Baxter and Corrigan cast twelve votes each, Justice Kennard cast ten votes, Chief Justice George cast nine votes, Justice Werdegar cast eight, Justice Moreno cast six and Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye cast one.

As for total votes against defendants, Justice Werdegar led with twenty votes.  Justice Kennard was next with nineteen votes.  Justices Baxter and Moreno cast seventeen votes each.  Justice Chin cast sixteen votes.  Chief Justice George cast thirteen votes, his successor Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye cast five votes, and Justice Liu cast four.

Join us back here next time as we address the years 2014 to 2019 and total up our results.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Ryan Vaarsi (no changes).

Last time, we reviewed the data for the Court’s civil constitutional law cases between 1990 and 1997.  This time, we’re looking at the numbers for the years 1998 to 2005.

Constitutional law cases were slightly up for the years 1998 to 2005, with the Court deciding fifty-three civil constitutional law cases.  Specifically, the Court decided two cases in 1998, nine in 1999, six in 2000, eight in 2001, ten in 2002, five each in 2003 and 2004 and eight cases in 2005.

Between 1998 and 2005, the Court decided twenty-three civil constitutional law cases won by the plaintiffs below and twenty-three cases won by the defendants.

Defendants who won at the Court of Appeal level had a difficult time between 1998 and 2005, winning only seven and losing twelve.  Winning defendants were only one win and four losses between 2003 and 2005.

Plaintiffs who won below had an even more difficult time, winning ten but losing seventeen.  The winning plaintiffs won zero and lost four in 2005.

Consolidating the last two tables, defendants overall (disregarding who won at the Court of Appeal) were twenty-four wins and twenty-two losses for this period.

The Court decided fourteen cases each relating to the powers and structure of governmental entities and public officials and to First Amendment issues.  The Court decided thirteen due process cases, eight cases involving preemption and four involving equal protection.

Justice Janice Rogers Brown led in total votes cast for defendants in civil constitutional law cases with thirty-one.  Justice Kennard had twenty-nine votes, Justice Chin twenty-seven, Justices Baxter and Werdegar twenty-four apiece, and Chief Justice George voted for defendants twenty-two times.

As for votes against defendants in civil constitutional law cases, Chief Justice George led with thirty, Justice Werdegar cast twenty-seven votes, Justice Chin had twenty-four, Justice Baxter had twenty-three votes and Justice Kennard had twenty-two.

Join us later this week as we finish up the data on constitutional law cases.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Dennis Jarvis (no changes).