CEPR | There have long been concerns that US Supreme Court decisions increasingly favour economic elites. This column analyses 1,782 cases from 1953 to 2022 to examine how justices’ rulings directly shift economic resources between the ‘rich’ and ‘poor’. In the 1950s, Democratic- and Republican-appointed justices both sided with the wealthy in around 40% to 45% of cases. By 2022, the average Republican-appointed justice voted pro-rich roughly 70% of the time, while the average Democratic-appointed justice did so about 35% of the time. Moreover, shifts in the Court’s composition have steadily moved the median justice – the pivotal actor in a nine-justice Court – towards pro-rich rulings, with implications for the distribution of resources and for economic inequality.

Source: Center for Economic Policy Research.