Business Interests Racking Up Wins With Supreme Court

Businesses are faring well since Chief Justice John Roberts’s took the helm almost a decade ago.

May 06, 2014

WASHINGTON – The Roberts court has sided with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce 71% of the time when the powerful business lobby formally involves itself in a case, according to a tally kept by the liberal Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC), as reported by The Hill.

The Chamber of Commerce’s tally for the current term differs slightly from that of the CAC, but the business group doesn’t dispute its success. The Chamber attributes its winning record to consensus on the court when it comes to business cases, rather than any deference to corporations themselves.

“The reality is an overwhelming number of business cases are decided by wide margins and are not particularly contentious,” said Sheldon Gilbert, senior counsel for litigation for the U.S. Chamber’s Litigation Center.

To be sure, the high court does not always side with businesses in major cases. The justices, for instance, parted ways with business in their 2012 decision to uphold the Affordable Care Act, and the past week’s ruling to reinstate a set of contentious Environmental Protection Agency air quality regulations.

Republican presidents appointed five of the court’s nine current justices. The CAC figures include 115 cases in which the Chamber was party to a case, filed an amicus brief or represented a party since January of 2006, after Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito joined the court.

By comparison to the 71% mark under Roberts, the Chamber’s view prevailed only 43% of the time under former Chief Justice Warren E. Burger between 1981 and 1986 and in 56% of cases decided during William Rehnquist’s tenure as chief.

But the statistics do not encapsulate every case for which business has a vested interest, and it should be noted that the overwhelming majority of Chamber-involved cases were decided unanimously.

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