As we approach the final opinion day scheduled in May, the court still has 33 opinions to release before the justices’ summer recess. Those 33 opinions include the opinions in high-profile cases involving the consideration of race in college admissions, the challenge to the Biden administration’s student-debt relief program, and the constitutionality of a 1978 law that regulates the adoption of Native American children.
With the justices’ release of six opinions last week, and five the week before that, it is finally possible to draw some conclusions about who may (or may not) be writing some of the remaining opinions. As a reminder, the justices try very hard to divide up the workload evenly not only over the course of the term, but also from argument session to argument session. For example, if there are nine arguments in a particular session, it would normally mean that each justice would be responsible for drafting one opinion. Therefore, if a justice has already written an opinion in a sitting, he or she is not likely to have another one for that month.
For the court’s October argument session, there are two cases that have not yet been decided: the regulatory/environmental case Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency; and the voting rights case Allen (formerly Merrill) v. Milligan. Three justices – Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas – have not yet written opinions for October, so two of those three are almost certainly the authors of Sackett and Allen, although at this point there’s no way to know who may be drafting which ones. But in any event, that likely bodes well for the Sacketts and, in all likelihood, Alabama.
There are too many cases remaining from the November argument session (six) to make any real predictions about who might be writing them. There are four cases remaining from the December argument session: United States v. Texas, the challenge to a Biden administration immigration policy; 303 Creative v. Elenis, a web designer’s challenge to a Colorado law that bars businesses that serve the public from discriminating against gay people; the False Claims Act case United States ex rel. Polansky v. Executive Health Resources; and the election-law case Moore v. Harper. Four justices have not yet written opinions for December: Roberts and Justices Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh.
There is only one case from the January argument session that has not yet been decided: Glacier Northwest v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, involving preemption and the National Labor Relations Act. There were only seven arguments in all of January, one of which – In re Grand Jury – was dismissed as improvidently granted, so four justices – Roberts, Alito and Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Amy Coney Barrett – have not yet written, making it all but impossible at this point to say who might be writing in Glacier.
Here’s a full list of the term’s decided and as-yet-undecided cases, along with a tally of the number of opinions written by each justice so far. Justice Neil Gorsuch currently leads the pack with four opinions; by contrast, Roberts and Alito have each released just one so far.
October – 8 cases
Decided: 6
- Delaware v. Pennsylvania & Wisconsin (Jackson)
- Arellano v. McDonough (Barrett)
- National Pork Producers Council v. Ross (Gorsuch)
- Reed v. Goertz (Kavanaugh)
- Helix Energy Solutions v. Hewitt (Kagan)
- Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith (Sotomayor)
Remaining: 2
- Sackett v. EPA
- Allen (formerly Merrill) v. Milligan
Justices who have not yet written: Roberts, Thomas, Alito
November – 9
Decided: 3
- Cruz v. Arizona (Sotomayor)
- Bittner v. United States (Gorsuch)
- SEC v. Cochran & Axon v. FTC (Kagan)
Remaining: 6
- Students for Fair Admissions v. UNC
- Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard
- Jones v. Hendrix
- Mallory v. Norfolk Southern
- Health & Hospital Corp. of Marion County v. Talevski
- Haaland v. Brackeen
Justices who have not yet written: Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Jackson
December – 9
Decided: 5
- Ciminelli v. US (Thomas)
- Percoco v. US (Alito)
- Wilkins v. US (Sotomayor)
- MOAC Mall Holdings v. Transform Holdco (Jackson)
- Bartenwerfer v. Buckley (Barrett)
Remaining: 4
- US v. Texas
- 303 Creative v. Elenis
- S. ex rel Polansky v. Executive Health Resources
- Moore v. Harper
Justices who have not yet written: Roberts, Kagan, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh
January – 7
Decided: 6
- Ohio Adjutant General’s Department v. FLRA (Thomas)
- In re Grand Jury (DIG)
- Financial Oversight & Management Board for Puerto Rico v. Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (Kagan)
- Turkiye Halk Bankasi v. US (Kavanaugh)
- Santos-Zacharia v. Garland (Jackson)
- Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools (Gorsuch)
Remaining: 1
- Glacier Northwest v. Int’l Brotherhood of Teamsters
Justices who have not yet written: Roberts, Alito, Sotomayor, Barrett
February – 6
Decided: 3
- New York v. New Jersey (Kavanaugh)
- Twitter v. Taamneh (Thomas)
- Gonzalez v. Google (PC)
Remaining: 3
- Dubin v. US
- Biden v. Nebraska
- Department of Education v. Brown
Justices who have not yet written: Roberts, Alito, Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch, Barrett, Jackson
March – 10
Decided: 2
- Amgen v. Sanofi (Gorsuch)
- Polselli v. IRS (Roberts)
Remaining: 8
- US v. Hansen
- Arizona v. Navajo Nation
- Coinbase v. Bielski
- Abitron Austria v. Hetronic International
- Jack Daniel’s Properties v. VIP Products
- Lora v. US
- Smith v. US
- Samia v. US
Justices who have not yet written: Thomas, Alito, Sotomayor, Kagan, Kavanaugh, Barrett, Jackson
April – 9
Remaining: 9
- Slack Technologies v. Pirani
- Pugin v. Garland
- Groff v. DeJoy
- S. ex rel Schutte v. SuperValu
- Counterman v. Colorado
- Lac du Flambeau Band v. Coughlin
- Dupree v. Younger
- Yegiazaryan v. Smagin
- Tyler v. Hennepin County
Justices who have not yet written: All
Number of opinions per justice
- Roberts: 1
- Thomas: 3
- Alito: 1
- Sotomayor: 3
- Kagan: 3
- Gorsuch: 4
- Kavanaugh: 3
- Barrett: 2
- Jackson: 3
- Per curiam: 1
- DIG: 1
