Legal Expert Predicts Evenly Divided Supreme Court Will Seek Consensus This Term

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CNS News:

(CNSNews.com) – Don’t expect a lot of surprises or hot-button cases divided 4-4 by a deadlocked Supreme Court during the upcoming fall term, which begins the first week of October, says Carrie Severino, chief counsel and policy director of the Judicial Crisis Network.

 

“A true surprise would be one of the liberal bloc of justices siding with the conservative side, but I just cannot see that happening short of a minor miracle,” she said in an interview with CNSNews.com.

 

However, “the vast majority of the cases are pretty straightforward,” Severino pointed out. “Last term, we only saw four cases that ended up splitting 4-4. If anything, the court is trying to make that number even lower this year if possible.

 

“So far, it’s accepted fewer than half of the number of cases they normally grant cert on this time of year, so a lot of people are thinking that means they’re trying to avoid taking cases they think aren’t going to come out cleanly. They want to reach consensus.

 

“This may be the term [when] the Supreme Court is the only branch of government that manages to reach across the aisle and achieve consensus. Which frankly is a good thing,” Severino continued.