The unanimity rate tracks the size of the majority deciding a published opinion. For each year, the number of unanimous opinions, 6-1 splits, 5-2 splits, and 4-3 splits are shown. If less than seven justices participated in an opinion, 5-1 opinions are combined with 5-2, and 4-2 opinions are counted with 4-3. Unanimity rates can be used to compute a “total dissent rate,” the proportion of all votes cast in all decided cases that were dissenting votes. The numbers shown for each year include all opinions published between April 1 of the previous year and March 30 of the year indicated.
|
MARGIN |
1997 |
1998 |
1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
|
TOTAL DECISIONS |
80 |
100 |
88 |
109 |
104 |
107 |
110 | 107 | 127 |
|
UNANIMOUS |
41 |
61 |
65 |
77 |
67 | 72 | 95 | ||
|
6-1 |
13 |
16 |
11 |
7 |
20 | 13 | 18 | ||
|
5-2 |
21 |
18 |
17 |
9 |
14 | 7 | 3 | ||
|
4-3 |
10 |
14 |
13 |
14 |
11 |
14 |
9 | 15 | 11 |
|
TOTAL DISSENT RATE |
15.2 |
14.9 |
10.4 |
7.6 |
9.8 | 9.6 | 6.4 |
