ROBED SHEEP:

Supreme Court Votes Can Be Predicted: Study (Dan Rivoli, November 12, 2011, IB Times)

"We find that Supreme Court justices are significantly more predictable than one would expect from 'ideally independent' justices in 'ideal courts,'" that is, independently evaluating cases on merits, free of ideology, the study said.

The study was based on 150 cases of each court starting with the Warren Court in 1953 to the Rehnquist Court, which ended in 2004.

In using a "block" method, grouping justices and cases, the researchers' model correctly predicted 83 percent of votes, compared to 67.9 percent from legal experts in one particular study and a case content-based algorithm's 66.7 percent.

Of course, the Beltway activists would prefer an algorithm to a person.

Posted by oj at November 12, 2011 9:08 AM
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