In just a few days, the U.S. Supreme Court begins its new term for 2019-20. The frieze across the top of its building proclaiming “Equal Justice Under Law” inspires litigants and their lawyers to believe that the merits of their cases, not the political predilections of the justices nor that of the presidents who appointed them will determine the outcomes of the litigation.

While attorneys and their clients may hope that partisan ideology will not be determinative, the reality may be closer to what President Donald Trump said late last year when he asserted that “Obama judges” were ruling against him, suggesting that politics may be influential in deciding cases, as political scientists and legal scholars have long asserted.