CALP - Interview – Adam Feldman on SCOTUS Term Roundup

The California Appellate Law Podcast

SCOTUSblog contributor and EmpiricalSCOTUS analyst Adam Feldman joins us for a recap of the 2024–25 Supreme Court term. We dive into the end-of-term Stat Pack, ideological surprises, dissent patterns, and whether the Court is still a 6–3 conservative lock—or something more nuanced.

We discuss:

• Headlines make an opinion a “blockbuster,” but what really makes it significant?
• How Justice Kagan ended up in the majority more than some of the conservatives.
• Why Justice Kavanaugh writes so many concurrences.
• Does the emergency docket (aka “shadow docket”) confound the predictability of legal outcomes?
• Gorsuch’s libertarian streak, Barrett’s evolving voice, and Thomas’s prolific pen.
• Is the Court 3–3–3? Or just a 6-3 with what Adam calls a “soft middle”?
• SCOTUS opinion length, voting blocs, and coalition patterns—and why they matter to your next cert petition.

Tune in to learn how to read between the majority lines—and what might be coming in the 2025–26 term.

Chapters

1. Introduction and Host Banter (00:00:00)

2. High-Profile Supreme Court Cases of 2024-2025 Term (00:02:56)

3. Emergency Docket (Shadow Docket) Analysis (00:09:24)

4. Ideological Alignments & Outliers (00:14:41)

5. Justice Barrett's Emerging Role (00:25:29)

6. The Power of Concurrences (00:28:57)

7. Chief Justice Roberts' Leadership (00:32:33)

8. Predictions for 2025-2026 Supreme Court Term (00:37:11)

9. Closing Remarks (00:43:51)