7/85Percentage of Supreme Court cases in which civil liberties claims were made and upheld in 1963: 86

“October Term 1983 and the Era of Aggressive Majoritarianism: A Court in Transition,” by Geoffrey R. Stone, in the Georgia Law Review (Athens, Ga.)

    In 1983: 19

“October Term 1983 and the Era of Aggressive Majoritarianism: A Court in Transition,” by Geoffrey R. Stone, in the Georgia Law Review (Athens, Ga.)

11/86Percentage of Americans who don’t know how long a meter is: 66

Media General (Richmond, Va.)/ Associated Press Poll

    Who don’t know who William Rehnquist is: 71

National Law Journal

10/87Federal and state laws declared unconstitutional by the Warren Court: 171

U.S. Library of Congress

    By the Burger Court: 319

U.S. Library of Congress

9/87Number of the 142 nominations to the Supreme Court since 1789 that were not confirmed: 34

God Save This Honorable Court, by Laurence H. Tribe (New American Library)

    Number of the six Supreme Court nominations made by John Tyler that were not confirmed: 5

God Save This Honorable Court, by Laurence H. Tribe (New American Library)

    Number of the four made by Millard Fillmore: 3

God Save This Honorable Court, by Laurence H. Tribe (New American Library)

9/89Portion of Supreme Court opinions this year that have been decided by 5-to-4 votes: 1/4

Linda Greenhouse, New York Times (Washington)

9/89Percentage increase, since 1959, in the number of Supreme Court cases that involve the separation of powers: 224

Geoffrey Miller, University of Chicago Law School

9/89Percentage of Americans who can correctly name the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: 9

Washington Post poll

    Percentage who can correctly name the judge on The People’s Court: 54

Washington Post poll

1/90Ratio of decisions handed down by the Supreme Court to decisions handed down by Judge Wapner, since 1980: 2:3

Harvard Law Review (Cambridge, Mass.)/Harper’s research/Edwards-Billet Productions (Hollywood)

1/90Number of Supreme Court justices in 1984 who voted against legalizing the recording of TV broadcasts by VCR: 4

U.S. Library of Congress

10/90Number of law review articles Supreme Court nominee David Souter has ever published: 1

United States Senate Judiciary Committee

10/91Percentage of blacks who say that race “should never be a factor” in choosing a justice of the Supreme Court: 60

Time-CNN poll, Yankelovich Clancy Shulman (Westport, Conn.)

8/91Year Brazil’s Supreme Court first ruled that it is illegal for a man to kill his adulterous wife to defend his honor: 1991

Human Rights Watch (N.Y.C)

8/91Number of his first 77 decisions in which Supreme Court justice David Souter voted with Chief justice Rehnquist: 68

Harper’s research/Richard Carelli, AP (Washington)

9/92Portion of Supreme Court decisions last term in which David Souter did not vote with the majority: 1/13

U.S. Library of Congress

    Portion in which Clarence Thomas did not vote with the majority: 1/4

U.S. Library of Congress

12/94Percentage change since 1983 in the number of opinions issued by the Supreme Court: -44

U.S. Supreme Court

    Percentage change since 1983 in the number of petitions filed with the Court: +53

U.S. Supreme Court

8/94Rank of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, among the wealthiest members of the Supreme Court: 1

Administrative Office of the United States Courts (Washington)

1/96Ratio of Americans who can name the Three Stooges to those who can name three Supreme Court justices: 3:1

Luntz Research Company (Arlington, Va.),

9/97Number of Supreme Court decisions over which Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia disagreed last term: 1

Harper’s research

9/97Estimated gun sales prevented by background checks before the Supreme Court made them nonmandatory last July: 250,000

U.S. Department of Justice

9/00Number of the three cancer survivors on the Supreme Court who are also over 70: 2

U.S. Supreme Court

2/01Score shouted by Justice Antonin Scalia at a Washington, D.C., tennis court in 1998 before claiming victory: "5-4!"

Daniel Schorr, National Public Radio (Washington)

6/01Estimated number of blank ballots cast in protest during Israel’s national election in February: 56,000

Tanya Reinhart, Tel Aviv University (Israel)

    Days before the election that the Israeli supreme court rejected a request that blank ballots be counted: 4

Harper’s research

11/02Year in which Disney’s Mickey Mouse copyright will expire if the Supreme Court reverses a 1998 extension this winter: 2003

Prof. Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law School (Stanford, Calif.)

9/02Ratio of the number of acts of Congress overturned by the Warren Court to those overturned by the Rehnquist Court: 25:26

Prof. David M. O’Brien, University of Virginia (Charlottesville)

9/04Months before anyone filed an amicus brief supporting a 2002 habeas corpus suit on behalf of the Guantánamo detainees: 10

Center for Constitutional Rights (N.Y.C.)

    Number of amicus briefs filed once the case was accepted by the Supreme Court last fall: 17

Center for Constitutional Rights (N.Y.C.)

11/05Years that property owners in New London, Connecticut, spent fighting the city’s seizure of their land: 5

Waller, Smith & Palmer, P.C. (New London, Conn.)

    Minimum back rent that the city, after winning in the Supreme Court, is now intending to charge them: $951,718

Waller, Smith & Palmer, P.C. (New London, Conn.)

3/06Number of the 193 “ laughing episodes ” during Supreme Court arguments last term that were caused by Antonin Scalia: 77

Jay D. Wexler, Boston University School of Law

    Number caused by Clarence Thomas: 0

Jay D. Wexler, Boston University School of Law

8/06Year that Israel passed a “temporary” law barring Palestinians who marry Israelis from gaining citizenship: 2003

Supreme Court of Israel (Jerusalem)

    Vote by which its Supreme Court upheld the law this May: 6‒5

Supreme Court of Israel (Jerusalem)

4/07Amount by which the salary of Judge Judy exceeds the salaries of all nine Supreme Court justices combined: $26,000,000

Judge Judy (N.Y.C.)/U.S. Supreme Court

8/07Number of words spoken by Clarence Thomas during Supreme Court oral arguments since February 2006: 132

Supreme Court of the United States

    Number by Samuel Alito, the Justice who spoke the second-fewest words: 14,404

Supreme Court of the United States