SCOTUSbracket Round 1: #2 Anthony Kennedy v. #7 Sonia Sotomayor

For those few who are actually following along, the SCOTUSbracket is moving at a snail's pace. At this rate, the tourney will be over by the time the Senate confirms a new SCOTUS member.

This week we take a look at the match-up between one of the court’s more liberal justices against the country’s oh-so-powerful swing vote.

Kennedy, a Ronald Reagan appointee, has been on the nation’s highest court for 28 years and is now the court's most senior member thanks to the passing of Scalia. While many Republicans hoped Kennedy would be a conservative stalwart like the prior Reagan nominees’, Kennedy’s gravitation towards the middle of the ideology spectrum has made him one of the most pivotal members of the bench and to the entire country.

Moving now from the center to the far left, Sotomayor ranks on most ideology charts as the second most liberal justice currently on the bench, just a shade behind the Notorious RBG. With one of the more diverse backgrounds of any member to ever take the SCOTUS bench, Sotomayor channels her Bronx and Puerto Rican roots when asking pointed questions during oral arguments or when writing fiery opinions. She has become one of the court’s most favorite justices, unless you bleed GOP.

With all of that said, let’s get to the tale of the tape.

Courtroom Curiosity
When it comes to courtroom activity, Sotomayor is by-far the most inquisitive between these two justices. From OT2011 through OT2014, Sonia ranked in the top 3 every year in average amount of questions per oral arguments (19.3 Qs/argument). Kennedy, on the other hand, ranked third to last in each of those four years (10.5 Qs/argument).

Kennedy rarely cracks the top spot in frequency of questions asked, averaging a 3.5% as the number one questioner over the past four years. Sotomayor, on the flip side, can’t stop asking questions sometimes. She finished in top 3 as the most frequent questioner and as a top 3 questioner during this time. As a little cherry on top, in 2012, Sotomayor was a top 3 questioner 80% of the time, which is higher than any justice in that span.

While the gap between Sotomayor and Kennedy reduces when you look at the frequency that each justice asks the first question during an oral argument, Kennedy's numbers are not enough to surpass Sonia in any given year. Sonia’s proclivity to bombard counselors with questions makes her a fierce justice to face when bringing a case to the Supreme Court. Because of this highly advanced courtroom curiosity, this category is easy won by Sotomayor.

Category Winner: Sonia Sotomayor.  

Penning Power
A unanimous decision is never easy to obtain. The court is filled with inflated egos, making it a tall task to get all of the justices to agree on an issue. However, finishing a term where all of a justice’s majority opinions are unanimous is almost like a baseball pitcher hurling back-to-back perfect games.

In OT2013, Sotomayor did just that. During that term, Sonia wrote eight majority opinions and all eight were unanimous, allowing her to post a 72-0 score in that term. That stat was so amazing that I had to recheck it three times to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me.

Thanks to his tendency to be the swing vote, Kennedy’s numbers in this category are greatly dwarfed by Sotomayor. Over the past four terms, Kennedy only reached an fellow justice approval rating above 70% once, while Sotomayor’s approval rating never dropped below 75% in that span.

While Sotomayor probably wins this category on her "perfect term" alone, the overall numbers from OT11 to OT14 are staggering and lean heavily in Sonia’s favor. Therefore, this category is also hers.

Category Winner: Sonia Sotomayor 

Humor
With the game all but wrapped up, Sotomayor doesn't have much to lose in this category. While bringing the hammer with a plethora of questions is definitely her go-to weapon, laughter just isn't Sonia's thing. It's a good thing for her that Anthony isn't really pulling in the chuckles either during these oral argument to erase his large deficit in this match-up.

On average the two pull in 9 and 6.75 laughs per term respectively, with Kennedy ranking slightly higher every year since OT12. Thanks to this slight lead in making the funnies, Kennedy steals this category. However, it is a little too late.

Category Winner: Anthony Kennedy


Sotomayor with the first upset of the tournament!

Winner: Sonia Sotomayor 2-1