Judges and Partisanship

Two Supreme Court justices on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum have lamented recently about the public impression that they and their colleagues are partisan. Amy Coney Barrett and Stephen Breyer—like all of their Supreme Court colleagues—say they rule based on the merits of cases, not on their personal politics or who appointed them to the court. But how can that be when the most controversial cases the Supreme Court rules on invariably split the justices right down their political divide? Retired US Appeals Court Judge Thomas Griffith is currently serving on a bipartisan commission created by President Biden to explore possible Supreme Court reforms.