In a recent public appearance, Chief Justice John Roberts expressed concern about the extreme polarization and partisanship that have gripped the other branches of the federal government. He was particularly concerned that, because of the increasingly partisan nature of the Supreme Court nomination and confirmation process, Americans might get the false impression that the Supreme Court itself might fall victim to such politicization. He assured his audience that that is not the case, that the Court is not "a political entity," and that the Court is not "divided into Republicans and Democrats." In short, he explained, that is not "how [the Court] works."

In fact, though, a good deal of the growing lack of confidence in the Supreme Court these days is due precisely to the concern that the justices are increasingly voting in ways that reflect the political values and preferences of the presidents who appointed them. Americans, in other words, increasingly believe that the justices are voting as "Republicans and Democrats." If this is so, it is not because the justices are "repaying" the favor of their appointment, but because presidents have gotten better at selecting nominees whose judicial approaches are likely to lead them to vote in ways that more or less conform to the appointing president's own political values and preferences. But is any of this true?

To test this possibility, I did a simple, back-of-the-envelope "study." Because the Court recently completed its 2013 term, I decided to look back over the Court's 1963, 1973, 1983, 1993, and 2003 terms in order to compare the justices' behavior in those terms with their behavior during the 2013 term.

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