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The John Locke Foundation
is a501(c)(3) nonproft, nonpartisan researchinstitute dedicated to improving public policy debate in North Carolina. Viewpoints expressed by authors do not necessarilyreect those o the sta or board o the Locke Foundation.
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spot
light
No. 414 – October 4, 2011
T
he
N.C. S
upreme
C
ourT
A look at the inner workings
ky :• review of North arolina upreme ourt casesfrom 2006 to 2010 shows that the ourt has been issuing fewer opinionsin recent ears. In 2006, the ourt heard 78 cases; in 2010, it heard onl 59cases.• Most of the cases the ourt heard were “cases b right,” which means theourt was required to hear the cases.• he ourt afrmed more North arolina ourt of ppeals decisions than itreversed or remanded (61 percent to 39 percent).• he ourt was much more liel to reverse discretionar-review casesfrom the ourt of ppeals (cases that the upreme ourt was not required tohear) than cases it had to hear from the ourt of ppeals.• he overwhelming majorit of ourt opinions were unanimous decisions.• Based on the trend from 2006, the number of unanimous decisions hasdropped sharpl. In 2006, 81 percent of the decisions were unanimous;whereas in 2010, 63 percent of the decisions were unanimous.• here were two distinct voting blocs in the ourt from 2007 to 2010. Onevoting bloc consisted of Justices Brad, dmunds, Martin, and Newb, withno combination of two justices agreeing less than 73 percent of the time incases where there were split decisions. he other voting bloc consisted of Justices Hudson and immons-Goodson, who agreed with each other 79 per-cent of the time in cases where there were split decisions.• hese two voting blocs often disagreed with each other. here were no two justices from the separate blocs who agreed more than 36 percent of the timein split-decision cases.• hief Justice Parer was more liel to be in the four-justice bloc than thetwo-justice bloc, but her votes were the most difcult to predict with respectto her agreement with the other justices.
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he North Carolina Supreme Court, the highest state court, issues legal opinions that have a critical impact onNorth Carolinians. Nevertheless, very little information is made widely available about the Court’s work.This
Spotlight
report provides useful information about the Court’s work that is probably unfamiliar evento most attorneys in the state. It includes how often justices agree with each other and the reversal rate of Court of Appeals decisions. The goal of this report is not to draw broad conclusions, but to present this information to readersand make some objective observations based on it.
he ourt’s Worload
Table 1 shows the total number of merit opinions from 2006 to 2010. A “merit opinion” does not necessarily havea formal denition, but for this report, it covers the number of cases where the Court issued an opinion answering alegal question in a case (as opposed to, for example, cases that are dismissed on procedural grounds).
able 1: N.. upreme ourt Worload, B year (2006–10)
20062007200820092010
Total Merit Opinions7878806459Merit opinions in this report include the total number of cases listed in the Court’s own annual list of opinions.In any given year, a very small number of cases have been excluded; for example, cases dismissed as moot and otheropinions that did not address a legal question in a case.
1
Over the ve-year period studied (2006–10), the North Carolina Supreme Court’s productivity signicantly de-clined in terms of merit opinions. Scott Gaylord, an associate professor of law at Elon University, calculated (usingdifferent methodology from that used in this report) that the Court’s productivity between 2007 and 2009 “actually hasgone down signicantly since 1998–2000.”
2
he Basis for the ourt Hearing ases
The North Carolina Supreme Court can hear a case “by right” (the Court is required to hear the case by statute)
3
or it may choose to take a case that it is not required to hear (discretionary review).
4
The most common reason theCourt is required to hear a case is when the North Carolina Court of Appeals issues a split decision on the case. If theNorth Carolina Court of Appeals issues a unanimous opinion, the North Carolina Supreme Court may, upon its owndiscretion and within statutory limits, hear the case.
able 2: he Reasons the N.. upreme ourt Heard ases, B year (2006–10)
20062007200820092010
Total Merit Opinions7878806459
Cases by right
6256704739
Cases by discretionary review
1622101720The Court mostly hears cases by right; however, the number of cases by right went down signicantly over theve-year period studied (see Table 2). This decline suggests that the Court of Appeals is issuing fewer split decisions.During this same time, there is no trend showing an increase in the number of cases the Court is taking upon discre-tionary review.
3
In other words, the Court has not been making up for the fewer cases by right by hearing more cases by discretion-ary review. That explains the reduction in total merit opinions.
Results of ases b Right ompared with Discretionar-Review ases
Table 3 examines the results of cases by right and discretionary-review cases. Specically, the table breaks downwhether the cases were afrmed, reversed, or remanded (“remanded” means a case was sent down to a lower court forreconsideration), or whether there was a “partial” decision where the case was both afrmed in part and reversed orremanded in part.Discretionary-review cases were much more likely to be reversed than cases by right. That likely is a result of howthe Court addressed Court of Appeals decisions, as discussed below.
able 3: Results of ll ases, B year and Reason Heard (2006–10)
5
20062007200820092010
Cases by right6256704739
Afrmed
4235382823
Reversed/Remanded
1412201610
Partial
691236Cases by discretionary review1622101720
Afrmed
25352
Reversed/Remanded
9751012
Partial
510226Total Cases7878806459
Results of upreme ourt Review of ourt of ppeals Decisions
One of the more intriguing questions is what happens when the North Carolina Supreme Court hears appeals of Court of Appeals decisions (see Figure 1 and Table4). During the period studied, signicantly morecases were afrmed than reversed or remanded (61percent to 39 percent). Those gures do not includethe “partial” decisions in which cases were both af-rmed and reversed or remanded.The Supreme Court was much more likely to re-verse discretionary-review cases than cases by rightfrom the Court of Appeals (split-decision cases). Asstated earlier, most cases by right are Court of Ap-peals split-decision cases. A likely reason for this result is that the Su-preme Court is more apt to take discretionary casesfrom the Court of Appeals that it wants to reverse. If the Supreme Court agrees with a Court of Appealsruling, it can simply let the lower court’s decisionstand and not take up the case.
Note: This graph does not include partial decisions in which cases were bothafrmed and reversed or remanded.
igure 1: N.. upreme ourt Review of DecisionsB the ourt of ppeals, 2006–10
Afrmed vs. Reversed/Remanded Cases
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Spotlight 414 The N.C. Supreme Court: A look at the inner workings
Key facts:
• A review of North Carolina Supreme Court cases from 2006 to 2010 shows that the Court has been issuing fewer opinions in recent years. In 2006, the Court heard 78 cases; in 2010,… (More)
• A review of North Carolina Supreme Court cases from 2006 to 2010 shows that the Court has been issuing fewer opinions in recent years. In 2006, the Court heard 78 cases; in 2010,… (More)
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