Shifting Balance

Moderate-to-liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg takes over moderate-to-conservative Byron White’s seat as the Supreme Court opens this week. She may move the court away from some of its “more restrictive views” of free speech and be “more attentive to separation of church and state and religious freedom than was Justice White,” says Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe. Some fresh stats on the court’s last term:

Justices with whom White voted most often:

Rehnquist 78.9%

Kennedy 74.6%

Justices with whom White voted least often:

Blackmun 64.0%

Stevens 57.9%

Justices who voted together most often:

Scalia & Thomas 86.0%

Least often:

Stevens & Thomas 45.6%

Justices who voted together most often (liberal division):

Blackmun & Stevens 73.7%

[(Source: Harvard Law Review)]