Judges’ party affiliation strongly but not universally predicts their voting behavior across courts.

Evidence

Do party affiliations help predict how judges vote? The most comprehensive survey of research on the issue concludes that there are strong connections between judges’ political affiliations and their voting behavior. … On the Supreme Court, the conservative bloc (Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch) is made up of justices appointed by Republican presidents, while the liberal bloc (Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan) is made up of justices appointed by Democratic presidents. This connection holds true regardless of whether the courts are federal or state, trial or appellate. Nonetheless, one must be cautious about attributing judicial decisions solely to judges’ political attitudes. The connection between affiliation and voting behavior is not universal: the divisions on some courts bear no relation to the judges’ partisan affiliations. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2588

Categorization

• SHARE: The neat mapping of 2018-era Supreme Court blocs onto appointing presidents is the kind of doctrinal trivia a civics-minded friend would enjoy.