The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Why Did Justice Kagan Write So Little This Term?
Other than the Chief, Justice Kagan wrote the fewest opinions.
Now that the Supreme Court has issued its final opinion of the term, we can see which justices wrote the most, and which wrote the least.
Majority opinion assignments were fairly uniform: All of the justices had six or seven opinions for the Court, save for the most junior justice, Justice Jackson, who had five.
The Chief Justice did not write any signed opinions other than his six opinions for the Court, but I assume this was due (in part) to his writing the lion's share of the Court's per curiam opinions (there were six, not including shadow docket orders).
Justice Thomas wrote the most signed opinions -- a whopping twenty-eight -- including eight dissents. Justice Jackson was the most frequent dissenter, however, authoring nine. Justice Kavanaugh only wrote two dissents.
Most interesting to me, however, is that Justice Kagan only wrote ten opinions this term -- six opinions for the Court and four dissents. One possible explanation for this is that she was doing more work behind the scenes, or that she was more active writing memos or even opinions related to shadow docket orders. Justice Barrett had the next fewest number of opinions -- fourteen -- seven of which were opinions for the Court (including Trump v. CASA) and four dissents.
