More than 100 days after U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died, staffers are still working on closing up his chambers—just one sign that the court is not running on all cylinders as it heads into the climactic final month of its term.
Consequences of an eight-member court—magnified by the outsized influence of the ninth who died—can be found in 4-4 ties, the low number of cases set for review next term, and the odd alliances and narrow judgments in the cases that are decided. The court’s disposition of the contraceptive mandate case Zubik v. Burwell—in effect mediating rather than deciding a resolution—is one of the oddest outcomes in recent court history.
