Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship/Overview of Confidence Scoring Results
 |
June 2020
Of the 341 justices studied, 179 (52.5%) are affiliated with the Republican Party, 113 (33.1%) are affiliated with the Democratic Party, and 49 (14.4%) have an indeterminate affiliation.
The proportion of justices affiliated with each party is roughly equal to the percentage of courts with a majority of justices with each party affiliation.
| Partisan Majority | Number of States | Percent of States | Number of Justices | Percent of Justices |
| Democrat | 15 | 30% | 113 | 33.10% |
| Republican | 27 | 54% | 179 | 52.50% |
| Split/Indeterminate | 8 | 16% | 49 | 14.40% |
Twenty-seven states (54%) have a majority of justices with Republican Confidence Scores. Fifteen state supreme courts (30%) have a majority of justices with Democratic Confidence Scores. Eight state supreme courts (16%) are not composed of a majority of justices with Democratic Confidence Scores or Republican Confidence Scores due to the number of justices with Indeterminate Confidence Scores. We use the term split control to refer to the states that have neither a majority of justices with Democratic Confidence Scores nor a majority of Justices with Republican Confidence Scores.
| Party | States |
| States with a majority of justices with Democratic Confidence Scores (15): | California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington |
| States with a majority of justices with Republican Confidence Scores (27): | Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming |
| Split States, with neither a majority of justices with Democratic nor Republican Confidence Scores (8): | Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Vermont |
- Washington has the greatest number of justices with Democratic Confidence Scores, with eight out of nine justices on the court.
- Texas has the greatest number of justices with Republican Confidence Scores, with 18 out of 18 justices on their two courts of last resort.
| State | Mild D | Strong D | Mild R | Strong R | Indeterminate | Party Control *Listed in order of (D-R-I) |
| Total by party | 113 | 179 | 49 | |||
| Total by confidence | 78 | 35 | 125 | 54 | 49 | |
| Alabama | 0 | 0 | 2 | 7 | 0 | Republican (0-9-0) |
| Alaska | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | Republican (0-3-2) |
| Arizona | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | Republican (0-6-1) |
| Arkansas | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | Republican (0-4-3) |
| California | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | Democrat (4-0-3) |
| Colorado | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | Democrat (4-1-2) |
| Connecticut | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Democrat (5-0-2) |
| Delaware | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Democrat (4-0-1) |
| Florida | 0 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | Republican (0-7-0) |
| Georgien | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 2 | Republican (0-7-2) |
| Hawaii | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Democrat (4-1-0) |
| Idaho | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Republican (0-5-0) |
| Illinois | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Democrat (4-3-0) |
| Indiana | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Republican (0-5-0) |
| Iowa | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Republican (1-5-1) |
| Kansas | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Democrat (4-2-0) |
| Kentucky | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | Split (2-2-3) |
| Louisiana | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Republican (2-4-1) |
| Maine | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Democrat (4-0-2) |
| Maryland | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | Split (3-1-3) |
| Massachusetts | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | Split (2-3-2) |
| Michigan | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | Republican (3-4-0) |
| Minnesota | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Democrat (4-2-1) |
| Mississippi | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | Republican (2-7-0) |
| Missouri | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Split (3-3-1) |
| Montana | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | Split (3-1-3) |
| Nebraska | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | Republican (1-6-0) |
| Nevada | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | Split (2-3-2) |
| New Hampshire | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Split (1-2-1) |
| New Jersey | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | Republican (2-4-1) |
| New Mexico | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Democrat (4-1-0) |
| New York | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Democrat (6-1-0) |
| North Carolina | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Democrat (6-1-0) |
| North Dakota | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Republican (0-4-1) |
| Ohio | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | Republican (2-5-0) |
| Oklahoma | 3 | 1 | 7 | 1 | 2 | Republican (4-8-2) |
| Oregon | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Democrat (7-0-0) |
| Pennsylvania | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | Democrat (5-2-0) |
| Rhode Island | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Republican (1-3-1) |
| South Carolina | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | Republican (0-4-1) |
| South Dakota | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Republican (0-5-0) |
| Tennessee | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Republican (2-3-0) |
| Texas | 0 | 0 | 8 | 10 | 0 | Republican (0-18-0) |
| Utah | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | Republican (0-4-1) |
| Vermont | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | Split (1-2-2) |
| Virginia | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | Republican (1-5-1) |
| Washington | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Democrat (8-0-1) |
| West Virginia | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Republican (1-4-0) |
| Wisconsin | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Republican (1-4-2) |
| Wyoming | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Republican (0-5-0) |
| Total by confidence | 78 | 35 | 125 | 54 | 49 | |
| Total by party | 113 | 179 | 49 | |||
About the authors
Samuel Postell is a staff writer on Ballotpedia's Marquee Team and a lecturer at the University of Dallas.
Luke Seeley is a staff writer on Ballotpedia's Marquee Team.
Heidi Jung developed the graphics.
Ballotpedia CEO Leslie Graves, Ballotpedia COO Gwen Beattie, Editor-in-Chief Geoff Pallay, and Ballotpedia Vice President of external relations Alison Prange reviewed the report and provided feedback as did editor Cory Eucalitto. Outside reviewers included Dr. G. Alan Tarr from Rutgers University, and Dr. Aman McLeod from the University of Idaho College of Law.
Footnotes
| ||||||||||||||||||||
