Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, judges having much in common, take different paths

In December, Justice Kavanaugh joined Chief Justice Roberts in voting for the rejection of appeals resulting from state efforts to ban family planning programs from the Medicaid program. Thomas J., writing for Gorsuch and Alito JJ., Questioned the reasons of the majority.

"What explains the court's refusal to do its job here?" Wrote Judge Thomas. "I suspect that this has something to do with the fact that some people interviewed in these cases call themselves" Planned Parenthood "."

Ms. Wydra of the Constitutional Accountability Center noted that Judges Kavanaugh and Gorsuch were opposed to a February ruling that lawyers could not ignore their clients' instructions to appeal, even though clients had agreed to waive appeals as part of their proceedings. advocacy agreements.

Judge Kavanaugh joined the majority opinion of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. Gorsuch JA, Thomas and Alito JJ., Disagreed.

Nevertheless, Wydra said, "the fact is that this is a Conservative court and all we know about these two judges is that they are also very conservative."

There are reasons to be wary of early assessments by judges, as studies have shown that there are "first-year effects" on the Supreme Court that make long-term trends predictive. At the beginning of their term, for example, judges are less likely to dissent, according to data compiled by Lee Epstein, a law professor and political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, and Kevin Quinn, a political scientist at University of Michigan.

This could explain, said Professor Epstein, why Judge Kavanaugh voted with the majority in 95% of the cases in dispute. This period was decided by the court as a whole, while Justice Gorsuch was the majority in 82% of the cases.

"After his controversial confirmation, Judge Thomas pressured him, voting much more often with the majority of divided cases than he did afterwards, as Gorsuch did." said Professor Epstein. "Kavanaugh seems to be doing the same thing, in agreement with the Chief Justice – the new center of the court. That Kavanaugh joins Alito, Thomas and now Gorsuch, on the far right, remains to be seen.