Democrats continue to portray the Supreme Court as a danger, but the list of majority decisions during the recently concluded term does not support their case.

Statistics from this term reflect that decisions have not always fallen along expected ideological lines: Of the 22 decisions that ended in a 6-3 split this term, only half had six Republican-appointed justices on one side and three Democratic-appointed justices on the other. according to to an empirical Supreme Court, but the term ended with a Democrat in office. Slam Democratic New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and left-leaning Democrats who have pledged to file impeachment proceedings against the Supreme Court group Multi-million dollar campaign Make it a central issue in the election.

“Since the Supreme Court's current conservative supermajority was formed in 2020, this term has been more ideologically divided than any other term except for the 2021 Senate term (in which the Supreme Court decided landmark cases like Dobbs and Brune ),” Dr. Adam Feldman, founder of Empirical SCOTUS, wrote on Monday. “Interestingly, while the concept of a (6-3) decision might avoid ideological division, this term has once again proven that this is not necessarily the case.”

Additionally, according to Empirical SCOTUS, approximately 46% of all decisions were unanimous, with split decisions becoming more prevalent toward the end of the term. These decisions included several cases that, at first glance, appeared highly contentious. The unanimous Supreme Court rejected a challenge to an abortion pill, upheld former President Donald Trump's eligibility to run in 2024, and sided with the National Rifle Association in a First Amendment lawsuit against New York state officials.

Still, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said this week that the Supreme Court “Maga” Impact Following the ruling on President Trump's immunity appeal.

“This disgraceful decision from the MAGA Supreme Court, comprised of three justices appointed by Trump himself, enables a former president to break the law and undermine our democracy,” Schumer said. statement.

Josh Blackman, a professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston, argued that if it had been a “right-wing court,” the abortion drug mifepristone would have been taken off the market and plaintiffs challenging the Biden administration's censorship would have prevailed. But the majority ruled that the plaintiffs in both cases did not have standing to sue.

“This is a courthouse. [where] “Conservatives are losing big time,” Blackmun told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is not a right-wing court.”

Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the 6-3 majority opinion in Marcy v. Missouri, in which the Supreme Court refused to uphold an injunction barring the Biden administration from significantly encouraging or coercing social media platforms to censor speech. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh joined Justice Barrett's opinion along with three other Democratic appointees.

As expected, ideological divisions occurred most often in administrative law cases.

“One of the biggest and perhaps most long-lasting impacts of this term will be the Supreme Court's oversight of the boundaries of the separation of powers and correcting those areas where it has gone wrong,” JCN President Carrie Severino told DCNF. (Related article: Supreme Court deals devastating blow to enduring bureaucratic power over American lives)

The 6-3 conservative majority in Loper Bright and Relentless overturned decades of precedent that had provided the basis for Chevron deference, a doctrine that directs courts to follow an interpretation of the law that critics say gives the government an automatic advantage in lawsuits against citizens. The decision upheld defendants' Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial in the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) pursuit of civil penalties in SEC v. Jarcasm.

The majority also struck down a Trump-era ban on bump stocks in Garland v. Cargill, ruling that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) exceeded its authority when it issued regulations classifying bump stocks as machine guns.

Other cases have been more unusual: In United States v. Rahimi, a Second Amendment case, the Supreme Court upheld 8-1 a federal law restricting the possession of firearms by subjects of domestic violence restraining orders.

Kavanaugh wrote the majority opinion in Moore v. United States, which rejected a challenge to the Trump-era taxes, and was joined by Justices Roberts, Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Arguments in many cases this term show a “maturity” of the Supreme Court in principles and textualism, Severino said.

” [justices] “Fully fundamentalist and textualist adherents may still reach different conclusions, because their approaches do not demand a particular outcome in every case,” Severino said.

In Fisher v. United States, which examined the scope of the obstruction statute used to prosecute the January 6 defendants, Justice Barrett sided with Justices Kagan and Sotomayor in a dissenting opinion upholding the Biden Department of Justice's interpretation of the law, while Justice Jackson joined the Court's other conservative justices in arguing that the Department of Justice's interpretation was too broad.

“I think Judge Barrett is essentially a gatekeeper keeping cases off the court that she doesn't want to decide,” Blackmun told DCNF. (Related: “The president is now king”: Liberal judges express “fears for our democracy” in ruling against Trump immunity)

Blackmun argued that a key theme this term is the Supreme Court “putting off” important issues, many of which “depend on” the election.

For example, the majority postponed presidential immunity cases, leaving most of the “official acts” that qualify for immunity to lower courts. Blackmun noted that if Trump becomes president, “there will be no more lawsuits.”

Similarly, the Court unanimously held that Colorado could not remove Trump from the ballot under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, but rejection To answer the question of whether he “participated in the insurrection.” If you win the election, this question is irrelevant. The Supreme Court also sent back to a lower court a Biden administration challenge to Idaho's pro-life law, refusing to make a substantive ruling on whether the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) compels emergency room doctors to perform abortions.

“They're kind of postponing the problem,” Blackman said.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent senator, joined other Democrats in criticizing the Supreme Court this week, calling it “out of control.”

“If these conservative, right-wing, corporate-backed judges want to make public policy, they should leave the Supreme Court and run for political office,” he wrote. statement.

Severino said that to argue that the Supreme Court is politicized, critics “must ignore all the obvious counterexamples.”

Demand Justice, a left-leaning advocacy group that supports adding more judicial seats, announced a $10 million campaign on Tuesday aimed at making the Supreme Court a central election issue in 2024, Politico reported. “Our courts are not protecting our democratic institutions,” Skye Perryman, a senior adviser to the group, told the outlet.

Another Democratic group, Stand Up America, also announced a $1 million campaign last week to focus voters' attention on Supreme Court decisions on issues such as abortion and gun safety, The New York Times reported. report.

“Those who are trying to insist on a politicized court are trying to maintain it, regardless of the actual outcome,” Severino told DCNF. “They have no interest in engaging in serious discussions.”

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