Fact Checking of Justices on SCOTUS

      The “Common Wisdom” is that when a President appoints a Justice to the US Supreme Court that the President can count upon that Justice pursuing the President’s agenda.  But a close friend of mine, who is truly aware of realities in today’s world, actually sent me a list of Justices in significant cases since 1940 who voted against the Presidents who had appointed them.  Of those Justices, 13 were appointed by Republican Presidents, and only 3 appointed by Democratic Presidents.  But before listing those Justices and cases, we both thought it would be instructive to point out three recent cases in which the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump Administration, which are:

5/16/25: Supreme Court rules 7-2 against Trump administration in Alien Enemies Act case;

5/15/25: Supreme Court rules 9-0 to ease the standard for suing police over unreasonable force; and,

4/11/25: Supreme Court rules 9-0 that Trump officials must “facilitate” the release of a man deported to El Salvador.

      I’ll bet you that most of the people in our country are unaware of the fact that the present “Conservative”  Supreme Court has voted strongly against President Trump’s agenda in those recent high profile cases.  So now here is the list:

GOP Appointees ruling against the GOP in high profile cases:

Earl Warren (e.g. Brown v Board of Education)

William Brennan

Potter Stewart (e.g. Roe v. Wade)

Warren Burger

Harry Blackman

Lewis Powell

William Rehnquist

John Paul Stevens

Sandra Day O’Connor (e.g. Casey)

Tony Kennedy (e.g. allowing gay marriage)

David Souter

John Roberts (e.g. saving Obamacare in ACA)

Brett Kavanaugh (e.g. Apple on antitrust, Allen on voting rights)

Neil Gorsuch (e.g. Bostock on LBGTQ rights in Mayorkas)

Amy Barrett (e.g. DHS v. Texas, Dept. of State v. AIDS)

Democratic Appointees ruling against the Dems in high profile cases:

Felix Frankfurter (appointed 1939)

Byron White (appointed 1962)

Stephen Breyer (equal protection part of Bush v. Gore, Hosanna-Tabor)

      As shown by this list, many times the “Common Wisdom” at least about the politicization of the United States Supreme Court either is not true, or is greatly exaggerated.   So take heart!  The United States Supreme court is still enforcing the critically important Constitutional doctrine of the Separation of Powers, for the huge benefit of who we are as a country!

(Recently I asked a friend of mine to spell the word “wonton” backwards.  He said “Not Now.”)