When discussing the U.S. Supreme Court, commentators spend considerable time reviewing the decisions of the court to create “lineups” of conservative versus liberal justices and to speculate which justices, or group of justices, are the deciding or so-called “swing” votes. In cases raising constitutional issues involving prominent social issues, legal philosophies can be observed that can be helpful in forecasting future results, as well as the potential impact of new justices.

By contrast, this type of analysis rarely can be applied to the New York Court of Appeals, for at least two reasons.