Washington Supreme Court 2009 statistics
Every term we track the opinions and votes of each justice and provide a spreadsheet with a case-by-case breakout. Here are the numbers for 2009.
Number of Opinions by Justice
|
Justice |
Majority Opinions |
Concurring Opinions |
Dissents |
Total Opinions |
|
Alexander |
7 |
2 |
7 |
16 |
|
C.Johnson |
15 |
1 |
4 |
20 |
|
Madsen |
18 |
15 |
6 |
39 |
|
Sanders |
11 |
5 |
20 |
36 |
|
Chambers |
14 |
4 |
6 |
24 |
|
Owens |
14 |
1 |
3 |
18 |
|
Fairhurst |
12 |
5 |
6 |
23 |
|
J.Johnson |
11 |
4 |
4 |
19 |
|
Stephens |
15 |
3 |
3 |
21 |
The workload for 2009 was fairly evenly distributed. Soon-to-be Chief Justice Barbara Madsen was the most prolific writer this year, with 18 majority opinions and 39 total opinions. Justice Richard Sanders is the most frequent dissenter, writing nearly three times as many dissents as any other justice (including a dissent to his own majority opinion). As is common for the chief justice, Gerry Alexander wrote fewer opinions because of the additional administrative duties his position requires. Justice Debra Stephens participated in the fewest decisions as she joined the court after many of the cases had been argued, but she still managed to author the second-most majority opinions this year.
Frequency of Agreement between Justices
| C.Johnson |
Madsen | Sanders | Chambers | Owens | Fairhurst | J.Johnson | Stephens | |
| Alexander |
79% |
76% |
70% |
77% |
80% |
75% |
81% |
81% |
| C.Johnson |
84% |
68% |
80% |
86% |
81% |
81% |
81% |
|
| Madsen |
68% |
78% |
87% |
88% |
77% |
83% |
||
| Sanders |
79% |
68% |
66% |
64% |
75% |
|||
| Chambers |
81% |
76% |
72% |
88% |
||||
| Owens |
88% |
79% |
84% |
|||||
| Fairhurst |
84% |
83% |
||||||
| J.Johnson |
72% |
Ever wonder which justices agree with each other most frequently? The above chart documents the percentage of cases in which justices are on the same side of an opinion (majority and concurring opinions are treated as equivalent). The justices with the highest rates of agreement were Madsen and Fairhurst (88%), Chambers and Stephens (88%), and Owens and Fairhurst (88%). The justices with the lowest rates of agreement were Sanders and Fairhurst (66%), and Sanders and Jim Johnson (64%).
Frequency in the Majority
|
Justice |
Majority Votes* |
Total Votes |
% in Majority |
Unanimous Opinions |
|
Alexander |
94 |
115 |
82% |
3 |
|
C.Johnson |
106 |
117 |
91% |
2 |
|
Madsen |
104 |
115 |
90% |
4 |
|
Sanders |
80 |
114 |
70% |
4 |
|
Chambers |
97 |
117 |
83% |
5 |
|
Owens |
108 |
117 |
92% |
5 |
|
Fairhurst |
95 |
109 |
87% |
3 |
|
J.Johnson |
96 |
117 |
82% |
5 |
|
Stephens |
91 |
102 |
89% |
6 |
*Including concurring votes
Number of Decisions by Vote Count
|
Splits |
Number of Cases |
% of Total |
|
9-0 |
58 |
49% |
|
8-1 |
10 |
8% |
|
8-0 |
1 |
1% |
|
7-2 |
12 |
10% |
|
6-3 |
19 |
16% |
|
6-2 |
1 |
1% |
|
5-4 |
16 |
14% |
|
5-3 |
1 |
1% |
Unlike the U.S. Supreme Court, which sees many narrow 5-4 decisions, the state Supreme Court enjoys a number of strong majority opinions, with nearly half of its rulings unanimous or 9-0 in the outcome. Justices will frequently concur in the result of an opinion, while employing a separate rationale for reaching his or her conclusion.
Coming Soon: the court's noteworthy opinions from 2009.
(Note: Feel free to use these numbers, but we'd appreciate if you'd cite the Supreme Court of Washington Blog as the source.)
