[dev_by_day]

> It is widely thought that SCOTUS decides based on ideology and politics

Citation needed. Judges have differing judicial philosophies and those philosophies may run contrary to a political parties aims but it does not mean they are servants of political parties.

It is likely that the people who think their decisions are purely politically biased are the ones whose politics are not aligned with whatever the court decided. Rarely do they dig into the justifications and expert analysis for a given decision.

Both liberal and conservative leaning justices have ruled against things that the parties which helped appoint them wanted.

[jfengel]

They don't vote with their ideology with 100% reliability, but they do so far more often than not. They don't need to dig into the justifications to know that there are (frequently) four Supreme Court members who disagree with it. Those court members produce equally reasoned, scholarly arguments -- and are nearly always precisely the people nominated by the other party.

[dev_by_day]

Differing judicial philosophies will end up with different decisions.

Not reading there justifications for why they made a decision just because the judge does not align with ones political view is ignorance, plain and simple.

Only reading the critical analysis of any viewpoint or decision without reviewing their legal justifications will lead to massive derangement in ones perspective.

Law and high level court decisions will have some form of logic to them which is worth examining before dismissing them as partisan.

[greenhearth]

Get real. A bunch of those mofos are on a payroll.

[jfengel]

I don't believe they're on a payroll. They don't need to be. They were carefully courted as true believers in their ideological cause. They believe in the votes they cast.

And that's actually much more reliable than paying them. People who can be bought can be out-bid. True believers will do it for nothing except the right to make their ideology the law of the land.

[greenhearth]

Ok, I admit that you are right. Getting paid for their "opinions" is the proverbial icing I suppose.