---
title: "Chart of the Week: Supreme Court justices — who agrees with whom?"
description: "It’s one thing to talk about voting blocs on the Supreme Court — four conservative justices, four moderate-to-liberal ones and Anthony Kennedy in between, swinging back and forth like a pendulum. It’s another to see the actual voting patterns at work."
date: "2013-06-28"
authors:
  - name: "Drew DeSilver"
    job_title: "Senior Writer/Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/drew-desilver/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2013/06/28/chart-of-the-week-supreme-court-justices-who-agrees-with-whom/"
categories:
  - "Supreme Court"
---

# Chart of the Week: Supreme Court justices — who agrees with whom?

It's one thing to talk about voting blocs on the Supreme Court -- four conservative justices, four moderate-to-liberal ones and Anthony Kennedy in between, swinging back and forth like a pendulum. It's another to see the actual voting patterns at work.

The fine folks at SCOTUSblog, in their [end-of-term Stat Pack](http://www.scotusblog.com/2013/06/final-october-term-2012-stat-pack/), have charted how often each justice agreed or disagreed with his or her colleagues in the 78 cases decided by the Court in its just-ended term. This chart, which looks just at the 23 5-4 decisions, clearly shows how the justices align with, or against, each other on the most contentious cases:

![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2013/06/FT_13.06.27_JusticeAgreement.png)

As the chart shows, Justices Ginsberg and Kagan not only agreed with each other in every 5-4 case, but both also disagreed with Justice Alito on every single one. Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Sotomayor also found themselves on opposite sides of every 5-4 decision. It also shows that Kennedy, the Court's acknowledged "swing vote," was more likely to agree with the Court's four most conservative justices (ranging from 52% to 73% agreement in the 5-4 decisions) than the moderate-to-liberal ones (30% to 43%).

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