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Supreme Court · Associate Justice

Brett Kavanaugh

Republican appointee: Appointed by Donald J. Trump (R)

Served 2018–present · 7 terms

Confirmed 50–48

Biography

Brett Michael Kavanaugh is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since October 6, 2018. He was previously a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit from 2006 to 2018.

Source: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Ideology over time

Kavanaugh and the 10 justices who overlapped with Kavanaugh, 2018–present

−4−20+220182024More conservativeMore liberalThomasAlitoGorsuchKavanaughBarrettJ. RobertsKaganK. JacksonSotomayor
  • Brett Kavanaugh
  • 95% credible interval
  • Peer, appointed by a Democrat
  • Peer, appointed by a Republican
  • Court median
How to read this

Martin–Quinn scores place each justice on a single liberal–conservative dimension, estimated from their votes across terms, with scores allowed to shift from one term to the next. Higher is more conservative. The shaded band is the credible interval: wider when the record is thin, especially in a justice’s first terms, and narrower as votes accumulate.

Where Kavanaugh sits among all justices

Career average, every justice in the data set

−4−20+2+40.470.63

Kavanaugh’s range across terms

Served alongside Kavanaugh

10 justices

Closest career average first. Filled dot: the peer. Ring: Kavanaugh.

JusticeTogetherCareer avg
Amy Barrett2020–2024career average 0.77 versus Kavanaugh at 0.56John Roberts2018–2024career average 0.81 versus Kavanaugh at 0.56Neil Gorsuch2018–2024career average 1.04 versus Kavanaugh at 0.56Samuel Alito2018–2024career average 2.00 versus Kavanaugh at 0.56Stephen Breyer2018–2021career average −1.32 versus Kavanaugh at 0.56Elena Kagan2018–2024career average −1.74 versus Kavanaugh at 0.56Ruth Ginsburg2018–2019career average −1.76 versus Kavanaugh at 0.56Clarence Thomas2018–2024career average 3.40 versus Kavanaugh at 0.56Ketanji Jackson2022–2024career average −2.62 versus Kavanaugh at 0.56Sonia Sotomayor2018–2024career average −3.27 versus Kavanaugh at 0.56

How Kavanaugh voted

Every argued case Kavanaugh took part in, newest first, with how Kavanaugh voted in each: with the majority, in dissent, or in an equally divided Court. A Liberal or Conservative tag is the Supreme Court Database’s coding of who prevailed in the case, not a rating of the justices.

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    Data notes

    The Decisions page’s argued cases with this justice’s vote from the Supreme Court Database. “Majority” includes a concurrence; a vote that dissented in part is coded by the side the justice took overall. Cases the justice sat out and equally divided cases are left out of the percentages. “Wrote” means authored an opinion. Source: Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.).

    Report a correction

    Scores: Martin, Andrew D. and Kevin M. Quinn. 2002. “Dynamic Ideal Point Estimation via Markov Chain Monte Carlo for the U.S. Supreme Court, 1953–1999.” Political Analysis 10:134–153, from mqscores.wustl.edu. Appointment data: Federal Judicial Center biographical directory. Biographies: Wikipedia, text abridged, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Portraits: public-domain images via Wikimedia Commons.