Dr. Adam Feldman

Measuring the Justices: An Portrait of Ideology on the Current Supreme Court The justices' ideological preferences are a contested topic. This article discusses the costs and benefits of measuring the justices' ideologies at all and presents a novel, composite ideology measure

A fresh look at ideology in the current Supreme Court. New from me at Legalytics: legalytics.substack.com/p/measuring-...

Long time Jack. I forget the exact prompt but I'm sure it was totally convoluted.

The SCOTUS Attorney Switcheroo: The Lawyer Who Argued Your Appeal Probably Isn’t the One Who Went to the Supreme Court When cases travel from the appeals courts to SCOTUS, the attorneys often don’t make the trip with them. The pattern of who gets replaced, and when, reveals a great deal about Supreme Court practice.

When appellate attorneys are swapped for Supreme Court elite practitioners. My new Legalytics piece: legalytics.substack.com/p/the-scotus...

Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump: An Empirical Breakdown of the Court’s IEEPA Tariff Decision A statistical and comparative romp through the opinions, briefs, and oral argument to assess the impact of this landmark decision

My Legalytics take on the tariff decision legalytics.substack.com/p/learning-r...

Introducing the Interim Relief Docket Stat Pack For years, scholars and commentators have tracked the Supreme Court’s merits docket through detailed statistical analyses. SCOTUSblog’s Stat Pack has become an essential resource for understanding how...

Have you ever wished you had a Stat Pack for Supreme Court emergency applications like the one @dradamfeldman.bsky.social and @jaketruscott.bsky.social put together for the merits docket? Well now you do! Now live over on @scotusblog.com www.scotusblog.com/2026/01/intr...

Measuring What Mattered: Machine-Calibrated Case Importance in the Supreme Court’s 2024-25 Term What were the most important cases from last term? Here's how to move beyond the qualitative assessments

I ranked the top cases from the previous Supreme Court term using a quantitative index. You can find it on my Substack
legalytics.substack.com/p/measuring-...

Former Judicial Clerks: Creating Legacies for Generations A pattern of strategic succession is reshaping the federal judiciary, with judges increasingly replaced by their former clerks—cementing legal philosophies for generations.

Interested in judges' legacies and strategic retirement. Read my latest free post at Legalytics. legalytics.substack.com/p/former-jud...

The First Two Weeks: What Supreme Court Oral Arguments Reveal About the Term Ahead The first oral argument sitting of the Term is under the justices' belts but what does it show about the justices' interactions and what does it mean for the decisions down the line?

Didn't have a chance to listen to all of the first two weeks of scotus oral args this term or want to know the details by the numbers? I have a deep dive.
legalytics.substack.com/p/the-first-...

An Empirical Look at Recent Circuit Splits and the Likelihood of Supreme Court Review Circuit splits are the clearest indicator of cases ready for Supreme Court review, but the Supreme Court only selects a subset of these on cert. This post assesses some of the most likely candidates.

Circuit splits may signal the right type of cases for Supreme Court review but the Supreme Court only takes a limited amount of these. See which ones matter most recently and why in my latest post: open.substack.com/pub/legalyti...

The Supreme Court’s Quiet Power Players (2017-2024) This piece shows how a small circle of elite Supreme Court advocates—measured by grant rates, opposition success, and amicus patterns—can significantly shift the odds at the Court’s certiorari stage.

Who really shapes the Supreme Court’s agenda?
Tracked elite advocates (Blatt, Pincus, Geyser, Ho, Fisher, Shanmugam, Dvoretzky, Streett, Clement, Perry, Katyal, Unikowsky) across:
Petition volume & conversion
Defense
Amicus
Relists & timing
Frequent foes.
legalytics.substack.com/p/the-suprem...

Clerks, Chambers, and Power: The Networks Behind the Court This article shows Supreme Court clerkships now function less as prizes than as pipelines, channeling talent through tight networks into powerful firms and institutions.

Interested in Supreme Court clerk networks? I go through the similarities between the correlates of clerks across each justice, how long is the usual gap between law school and clerkships (in general, by justice, etc.) and more. legalytics.substack.com/p/clerks-cha...

The Ultimate Guide to Supreme Court Clerk Pipelines From the law schools that feed to lower court judges to the Supreme Court clerkship feeder judges, this article tracks Supreme Court clerkship data going back to 2005 and highlights recent shifts.

The ultimate guide to SCOTUS clerkship pipelines. Now on Legalytics: learn the schools and lower court judges that feed most often to Supreme Court clerkships by justice since 2005 and then since 2020 (when Barrett joined the Court).
legalytics.substack.com/p/the-ultima...

The Supreme Court’s Long Shadow Docket, Part II: The Lay of the Land Using unique shadow docket data, this article tracks topic areas, repeat advocates, the most frequent relief granted, and more to provide a more holistic picture of the justices' dissenting behavior.

Want to know more about the Supreme Court's shadow docket:

What types of cases are coming up and when do the justices dissent? Which attorneys are participating in high volumes of these cases...and more.

legalytics.substack.com/p/the-suprem...

The Supreme Court's Long Shadow: Judicial Behavior on the Shadow Docket Between the 2010 and 2025 Terms Using a dataset of decisions on the shadow docket with dissents between 2010 and 2025, this article presents of picture of coalitions and power distribution outside of the Court’s merits docket.

You might have read about the Supreme Court's Shadow Docket but do you know how the justices' vote in these cases? Now you can. Read my latest on Legalytics: legalytics.substack.com/p/the-suprem...

Friends of the Court, Allies of the State? Interest Group Alignment with the Federal Government This article analyzes 1,192 amicus briefs across 82 cases (OT 2022–OT 2024) where the federal government was a party and maps how named interest groups and individual Justices line up in those matters

SCOTUS amicus filings are a hot topic for academics, interest groups, and politicians. This Substack post breaks down when amici aligned with the federal govt's positions over the past 3 years.
legalytics.substack.com/p/friends-of...

Sure

Thanks. Here are my top 3: 1) seeing how numbers capture insights in qualitative fields that doctrine does not account for 2) fascination with some of the methodology and software 3) seeing how other industries already moved years ago in this direction and how stagnant law has been.

They already are. Stay tuned. I'm dropping a post looking at some of the justices' behavior on that docket in the next few days.

Good question. The caseload is minimal and is not likely to go rise anytime soon and continue to handle hot button issues with political ramifications. They have shifted some of the ideological decisions to the shadow docket though which often obfuscates full scope of decision making

The Front Door: Reading the Supreme Court’s Cert Tells Want insight into the cert process? Using a modern dataset of paid petitions (2017–2024), this piece turns relists, pre-cert amici, calendar rhythms, and specialist lineups into practical odds.

The Supreme Court only takes a handful of cases each term. What are some of the signs that the justices may take a case? I lay them out in my latest substack post. legalytics.substack.com/p/the-front-...

Beyond BigLaw: Comparing Law Firm Performance in Fortune 500 Federal Appeals in the First Two Months of 2025 This article compares law firms most trusted by Fortune 500 companies for high-stakes federal appeals, using new empirical data to reveal who actually delivers results when the stakes are highest.

I tracked law firms that litigated on behalf of Fortune 500 companies in major appeals over the first two months of 2025. This free article has the data and analyses legalytics.substack.com/p/beyond-big...

The Most Powerful Dissents in the 2024–2025 Supreme Court Term This article goes beyond a close read of this Term's dissents by creating discreet comparisons of the language used in each to define the most critical and urgent dissents over the past year.

I measured and compared the tone of dissents from the past Supreme Court term for Legalytics. You can read the article here legalytics.substack.com/p/the-most-p...

Where Students Find (Or Should Find) the Most Satisfying Law School Experiences: A Data-Driven Look at the Numbers You may know the most prestigious schools, but do these and should these schools yield the most satisfied students? See what the data show.

Where should law students find the most satisfaction from their experience? Some are top ranked schools, others are perhaps more surprising. I break the data down in this piece. legalytics.substack.com/p/where-stud...

Measuring the Modes How did the Justices leverage modes of interpretation this past term? This article uses empirical measures to track just how much originalism, pragmatism and more were applied in majority opinions.

Measuring the justices' uses of modes of interpretation this past SCOTUS term. A free one on Legalytics
legalytics.substack.com/p/measuring-...

How the 2024 term fits into the history of the Roberts court Empirical SCOTUS is a recurring series by Adam Feldman that looks at Supreme Court data, primarily in the form of opinions and oral arguments, to provide insights into the justices’ decision […]

As Chief Justice John Roberts closes out his 20th term, the Supreme Court has entered a new phase – less defined by volatility and more by entrenched ideological structure.

www.scotusblog.com/2025/07/how-...

The 2024-2025 Supreme Court Term and the Roberts Court History Placing the StatPack in the context of the Roberts Court's history since 2005

Putting this Roberts court term in historical context legalytics.substack.com/p/the-2024-2...

The @scotusblog.com StatPack put together by yours truly and @jaketruscott.bsky.social is now up for all of your data dives. Come by and check it out. www.scotusblog.com/stat-pack-20...

Behind the Scenes at Harvard Law Review There's a lot to unpack with over 2,200 pages of internal memos from the decision-making process now released. Here are details on what they show.

Unpacking Harvard Law Review memos released by the Washington Free Beacon. The first part in a series on Legalytics is now up: legalytics.substack.com/p/behind-the...

Judicial Ideology, Skrmetti, and Circuit Judges How does the Skrmetti opinion help define the stakes of judges' ideological positions in the U.S. Courts of Appeals?

New this evening. A romp through judicial ideology, anchoring in the recent SCOTUS Skrmetti decision, and applying to six courts of appeals judges (three from Biden and three from Trump). A true deep dive: legalytics.substack.com/p/judicial-i...

SCOTUS’ Law Journal Citation Practices Since Justice Barrett Joined the Court A look at the authors and journals that most frequently make their ways into the justices’ opinions.

Which law reviews have the justices cited most frequently since Barrett joined the Court? I break down the numbers relating to the justices, journals, and article authors in my latest for Legalytics: legalytics.substack.com/p/scotus-law...