Gorsuch's Record Was More liberal Than Kennedy's This Term

HERE’S A CURIOUS fact about the U.S. Supreme Court term that concluded in June: Trump-appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch racked up a more “liberal” voting record than Justice Anthony Kennedy.

- Damon Root

Kennedy did not join the Court’s liberal bloc in a single 5–4 decision in the entire 2017–2018 sitting. That’s unusual. In previous terms, Kennedy’s fifth vote decided such contentious issues as gay marriage and abortion.

Gorsuch, on the other hand, did side with the liberal bloc in Sessions v. Dimaya, which struck down a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act dealing with the power of the federal government to deport any alien, including a lawful permanent resident, convicted ofan “aggravated felony.” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the majority, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor. Gorsuch, who concurred in part and joined in the judgment, provided the tie-breaking fifth vote.

Thanks to Dimaya, it is now more difficult for the federal government to deport certain aliens under federal immigration law.

Gorsuch’s views also look more liberal than Kennedy’s when you consider their respective approaches in Carpenter v. United States, the blockbuster case in which the Court held that a warrantless government search of cellphone location data violated the Fourth Amendment.

Technically, Kennedy and Gorsuch both dissented from the Court’s 5–4 judgment. But the content of their opinions was entirely different.