Supreme Court Watch – March 2013
We continue to monitor Supreme Court cases that are impactful to our clients. At this point, twenty four opinions have been released; expect the pace to pick up dramatically in the next two months. We await the affirmative action and employment decisions that were argued a few months ago. Also, the two same sex marriage cases are set for argument on March 26 and 27.
Yesterday the Court reversed the 9th Circuit in Levin v. US, and held that plaintiff Levin could sue the government for the alleged medical battery by a Navy doctor for acts in the scope and course of his employment. The Court accepted eleven cases from the 9th Circuit – the highest of any circuit this term. So far, one 9th Circuit Decision has been affirmed and four have been reversed.
Some interesting statistics on SCOTUSblog show the rate of agreement in opinions between the Justices for the 2011 term. The highest rate of agreement is between Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, who agreed in 93% of the decided cases. The lowest rate of agreement? Ruth Bader Ginsberg agreed with Scalia and Thomas in only 57% of the cases.
