Ballotpedia's Supreme Court End of Term Review, 2015

On June 27, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded its 2015 term. While this term will most likely be remembered for the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia and the political battle waged to find his successor, the court continued its work, issuing major decisions in areas such as privacy, voting rights, and affirmative action.

By statute, the court's annual term begins on the first Monday in October. The court will sit for arguments in cases in which the court has granted a writ of certiorari during two-week sessions that run from October through April. The court sits for arguments on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays except when those days coincide with federal holidays. In the alternating periods between argument sessions, the court will work on crafting opinions. The court's term typically concludes at the end of June when all argued cases on its docket have been disposed of via an opinion in the case, listed for rehearing next term, or dismissed.

Ballotpedia's end of term summary provides a comprehensive look at the decision data for the 2015 term. This page presents data by each month's argument sitting as well as data for each individual justice.

Term data

October term 2015

From October 5, 2015, until June 27, 2016, the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in 82 different cases. In addition, the court issued a per curiam opinion in 13 cases which were not argued. Of the 82 cases that were argued:

70 argued cases were disposed of via 62 opinions authored by the justices. Some of the opinions addressed multiple cases which were consolidated for argument.
11 argued cases were disposed of via five per curiam opinions. Seven of those 11 cases were disposed of in one per curiam opinion.
One argued case was dismissed after oral argument without an opinion. In such a situation, the court is said to DIG a case, where DIG means that the court Dismissed as Improvidently Granted (DIG) the court's writ of certiorari issued to hear the case.

The justices upheld a lower court ruling in 33 of the 82 cases heard this term, a rate of 40.2%. This is the highest affirmance rate the court has had since 2010.

Dispositions by court

The table below presents a list of the Supreme Court's dispositions in argued cases this term. The data are arranged by the courts from which the cases were appealed. Definitions of the dispositions are presented for the benefit of the reader.

Affirm: The decision of a higher court to uphold a lower court's decision
Reverse: The decision of a higher court to overturn a lower court's decision
Vacate: The decision of a higher court to void, cancel, nullify, or otherwise invalidate a lower court's decision
Remand: The decision of a higher court, pursuant to its judgment in an appeal, to return a case to a lower court for additional proceedings addressing the disposition of, and direction from, the higher court.

Dispositions by court in argued cases - 2015 Term
Court	Affirmed	Affirmed & remanded	Reversed	Reversed & remanded	Vacated & remanded	Other	Total
1st Circuit	3	0	0	0	1	0	4
2nd Circuit	4	0	1	0	1	0	6
3rd Circuit	1	0	0	1	2	0	4
4th Circuit	4	0	0	1	2	0	7
5th Circuit	4	0	0	3	1	0	8
6th Circuit	0	1	0	1	0	0	2
7th Circuit	0	0	0	0	0	1	*1
8th Circuit	3	1	1	0	1	0	6
9th Circuit	2	1	1	1	3	0	8
10th Circuit	1	0	1	0	3	0	5
11th Circuit	0	0	0	1	2	0	3
D.C. Circuit	2	0	0	2	2	0	6
Fed. Circuit	1	0	0	1	2	0	4
U.S. district courts	2	0	0	0	0	**1	3
State/commonwealth courts	3	0	1	8	3	0	15
Totals (argued cases)	30	3	5	19	23	2	82
The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a petition for a writ of certiorari as improvidently granted (DIG) after hearing oral argument. The U.S. Supreme Court issued an authored opinion in the case dismissing petitioners' appeal for lack of standing. Source*: Supreme Court of the United States

October sitting

In October, the justices heard argument in twelve cases and issued nine authored opinions. There were two instances this month where multiple cases were consolidated into one argument and in which the consolidated cases' judgments were delivered in one opinion. There was one per curiam decision through which the lower court judgment was affirmed by an equally divided 4-4 court. The cases below are sorted by argument date.

October sitting, U.S. Supreme Court, 2015 Term
Case	Opinion author	Court below	Outcome	Vote
OBB Personenverkehr AG v. Sachs	Roberts	9th Circuit	Reversed	9-0
Hawkins v. Community Bank of Raymore	Per curiam	8th Circuit	Affirmed	4-4
Ocasio v. United States	Alito	4th Circuit	Affirmed	5-3
DirecTV, Inc. v. Imburgia	Breyer	Calif. Ct. of Appeals	Reversed and remanded	6-3
Kansas v. Gleason Kansas v. J. Carr Kansas v. R. Carr	Scalia	Kansas Sup. Ct.	Reversed and remanded	8-1
Montgomery v. Louisiana	Kennedy	Louisiana Sup. Ct.	Reversed and remanded	6-3
Hurst v. Florida	Sotomayor	Florida Sup. Ct.	Reversed and remanded	8-1
Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez	Ginsburg	9th Circuit	Affirmed and remanded	6-3
FERC v. Electric Power Supply Association EnerNOC, Inc. et al. v. Electric Power Supply Association	Kagan	D.C. Circuit	Reversed and remanded	6-2
Source: Supreme Court of the United States

October notes

All four judgments from lower state courts argued in October were reversed and remanded by the Supreme Court.
The court reversed judgments in nine of the twelve cases argued in October (75%).
Only Chief Justice John Roberts issued a unanimous opinion this sitting.
Justice Clarence Thomas did not author an opinion for the October sitting.
Justice Samuel Alito recused himself in FERC v. Electric Power Supply Association, which was consolidated with EnerNOC, Inc. et al. v. Electric Power Supply Association.

November sitting

In November, the justices heard argument in nine cases and issued nine authored opinions. Every justice authored an opinion from the November sitting, which was the only month this term in which all nine sitting justices wrote an opinion for the court. The cases below are sorted by argument date.

November sitting, U.S. Supreme Court, 2015 Term
Case	Opinion author	Court below	Outcome	Vote
Foster v. Chatman	Roberts	Georgia Sup. Ct.	Reversed and remanded	7-1
Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins	Alito	9th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	6-2
Lockhart v. United States	Sotomayor	2nd Circuit	Affirmed	6-2
Luna Torres v. Lynch	Kagan	2nd Ciruit	Affirmed	5-3
Shapiro v. McManus	Scalia	4th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	9-0
Bruce v. Samuels	Ginsburg	D.C. Circuit	Affirmed	9-0
Montanile v. Board of Trustees	Thomas	11th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	8-1
Tyson Foods v. Bouaphakeo	Kennedy	8th Circuit	Affirmed and remanded	6-2
Luis v. United States	Breyer	11th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	5-3
Source: Supreme Court of the United States

November notes

Each of the nine sitting justices at the start of term issued an authored opinion for cases argued in November, the only month of the court's term in which that feat was achieved.
The court reversed or vacated judgments in five of the nine cases heard in November (55.5%).
The court issued two authored unanimous opinions in argued cases this sitting.

December sitting

In December, the justices heard argument in ten cases and issued nine authored opinions. There was one per curiam decision through which the lower court judgment was affirmed by an equally divided 4-4 court. The cases below are sorted by argument date.

December sitting, U.S. Supreme Court, 2015 Term
Case	Opinion author	Court below	Outcome	Vote
Musacchio v. United States	Thomas	5th Circuit	Affirmed	9-0
Green v. Brennan	Sotomayor	10th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	7-1
Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, & Smith Inc. v. Manning	Kagan	3rd Circuit	Affirmed	8-0
Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin v. United States	Alito	D.C. Circuit	Affirmed	9-0
Gobeille v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.	Kennedy	2nd Circuit	Affirmed	6-2
Dollar General v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians	Per curiam	5th Circuit	Affirmed	4-4
Franchise Tax Board v. Hyatt	Breyer	Nevada Sup. Ct.	Vacated and remanded	6-2
Harris v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission	Breyer	U.S. District Court, District of Arizona	Affirmed	8-0
Evenwel v. Abbott	Ginsburg	U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas	Affirmed	8-0
Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin	Kennedy	5th Circuit	Affirmed	4-3
Source: Supreme Court of the United States

December notes

The court reversed or vacated judgments in only two of the ten cases argued in December (20%), by far the lowest such rate of any argument sitting this term.
The court issued five authored unanimous opinions in argued cases this sitting.
Justices Anthony Kennedy and Stephen Breyer authored two opinions each during this sitting.
Chief Justice John Roberts did not author an opinion for the December sitting.
Justice Elena Kagan recused herself in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.

January sitting

In January, the justices heard argument in nine cases and issued seven authored opinions. There was one per curiam decision through which the lower court judgment was affirmed by an equally divided 4-4 court. There was also one petition for certiorari where, after oral argument, the justices dismissed the petition as improvidently granted (DIG); the justices did not issue an opinion in that case. The cases below are sorted by argument date.

January sitting, U.S. Supreme Court, 2015 Term
Case	Opinion author	Court below	Outcome	Vote
Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association	Per curiam	9th Circuit	Affirmed	4-4
Molina-Martinez v. United States	Kennedy	5th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	8-0
Duncan v. Owens	NA	7th Circuit	Dismissed as improvidently granted (DIG)	NA
Bank Markazi v. Peterson	Ginsburg	2nd Circuit	Affirmed	6-2
Puerto Rico v. Sanchez Valle	Kagan	Puerto Rico Sup. Ct.	Affirmed	6-2
Heffernan v. City of Paterson	Breyer	3rd Circuit	Reversed and remanded	6-2
Americold Realty Trust v. ConAgra Foods	Sotomayor	10th Circuit	Affirmed	8-0
Nebraska v. Parker	Thomas	8th Circuit	Affirmed	8-0
Sturgeon v. Frost	Roberts	9th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
Source: Supreme Court of the United States

January notes

The court reversed or vacated a judgment in three of the nine argued cases this sitting (33.3%)
The court issued its only DIG - a dismissal of certiorari as improvidently granted - this sitting in the only appeal the court entertained from the 7th Circuit this term. The 7th Circuit was the only U.S. circuit court not to receive either a merits disposition or a summary disposition in any case the Supreme Court heard this term.
The court issued four authored unanimous opinions during this sitting.
Justice Samuel Alito did not author an opinion for the January sitting.
The January sitting was the last series of arguments for which the nine justices heard arguments together. Justice Antonin Scalia died on February 13, 2016. Sturgeon v. Frost was the last case in which Justice Scalia participated in oral argument.

February sitting

In February, the justices heard argument in twelve cases and issued ten authored opinions. There were two instances this month where multiple cases were consolidated into one argument and in which the consolidated cases' judgments were delivered in one opinion. The cases below are sorted by argument date.

February sitting, U.S. Supreme Court, 2015 Term
Case	Opinion author	Court below	Outcome	Vote
Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States	Thomas	Fed. Circuit	Reversed and remanded	8-0
Utah v. Streiff	Thomas	Utah Sup. Ct.	Reversed	5-3
Taylor v. United States	Alito	4th Circuit	Affirmed	7-1
Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics, Inc. Stryker Corp. v. Zimmer, Inc.	Roberts	Fed. Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing CPV Maryland LLC v. Talen Energy Marketing	Ginsburg	4th Circuit	Affirmed	8-0
Voisine v. United States	Kagan	1st Circuit	Affirmed	6-2
Williams v. Pennsylvania	Kennedy	Pennsylvania Sup. Ct.	Vacated and remanded	5-3
Nichols v. United States	Alito	10th Circuit	Reversed	8-0
Husky International Electronics, Inc. v. Ritz	Sotomayor	5th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	7-1
Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt	Breyer	5th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	5-3
Source: Supreme Court of the United States

February notes

The court reversed or vacated a judgment in eight of the twelve argued cases this sitting (66.7%).
The court issued four authored unanimous opinions during this sitting.
Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito authored two opinions each for the February sitting.
During oral argument in Voisine v. United States, Justice Thomas asked his first question from the bench in ten years.^[1]

March sitting

In March, the justices heard argument in eighteen cases and issued ten authored opinions. There were two instances this month where multiple cases were consolidated into one argument and in which the consolidated cases' judgments were delivered in one opinion. The cases below are sorted by argument date.

March sitting, U.S. Supreme Court, 2015 Term
Case	Opinion author	Court below	Outcome	Vote
Wittman v. Personhuballah	Breyer	U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia	Appeal dismissed	8-0
RJR Nabisco, Inc. v. European Community	Alito	2nd Circuit	Reversed	4-3
Simmons v. Himmelreich	Sotomayor	6th Circuit	Affirmed and remanded	8-0
Puerto Rico v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trust Melba Acosta-Febo v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trust	Thomas	1st Circuit	Affirmed	5-2
*Zubik v. Burwell	Per curiam	3rd Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
*Priests for Life v. Department of Health and Human Services	Per curiam	D.C. Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
*Roman Catholic Archbishop v. Burwell	Per curiam	D.C. Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
*East Texas Baptist University v. Burwell	Per curiam	5th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
*Little Sisters of the Poor Home for the Aged v. Burwell	Per curiam	10th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
*Southern Nazarene University v. Burwell	Per curiam	10th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
*Geneva College v. Burwell	Per curiam	3rd Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
CRST Van Expedited, Inc. v. EEOC	Kennedy	8th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
Betterman v. Montana	Ginsburg	Montana Sup. Ct.	Affirmed	8-0
Sheriff v. Gillie	Ginsburg	6th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	8-0
Ross v. Blake	Kagan	4th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
Welch v. United States	Kennedy	11th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	7-1
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co.	Roberts	8th Circuit	Affirmed	8-0
Cases marked with an asterisk () were consolidated from different jurisdictions and disposed of via the same per curiam opinion. \|Source*: Supreme Court of the United States

March notes

The court reversed or vacated a judgment in 12 of the 18 argued cases this sitting (66.7%).
The court, in an opinion by Justice Stephen Breyer, dismissed an appeal for lack of standing in an authored opinion.
The court issued seven authored unanimous opinions during this sitting, the most of any sitting this term.
Justice Samuel Alito recused himself in Puerto Rico v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trust which was consolidated with Melba Acosta-Febo v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trust.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor recused herself in RJR Nabisco, Inc. v. European Community.

April sitting

In April, the justices heard argument in twelve cases and issued nine authored opinions. There was one per curiam decision through which the lower court judgment was affirmed by an equally divided 4-4 court. There was one instance this month where multiple cases were consolidated into one argument and in which the consolidated cases' judgments were delivered in one opinion. The cases below are sorted by argument date.

April sitting, U.S. Supreme Court, 2015 Term
Case	Opinion author	Court below	Outcome	Vote
United States v. Texas	Per curiam	5th Circuit	Affirmed	4-4
United States v. Bryant	Ginsburg	9th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	8-0
Universal Health Services v. U.S. ex rel. Escobar	Thomas	1st Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
*Birchfield v. North Dakota	*Alito	North Dakota Sup. Ct.	Reversed and remanded	*7-1
*Beylund v. Levi	*Alito	North Dakota Sup. Ct.	Vacated and remanded	*7-1
*Bernard v. Minnesota	*Alito	Minnesota Sup. Ct.	Affirmed	*7-1
Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro	Kennedy	9th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	6-2
Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.	Kagan	2nd Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
Cuozzo Speed Technologies v. Lee	Breyer	Fed. Circuit	Affirmed	8-0
Mathis v. United States	Kagan	8th Circuit	Reversed	5-3
Dietz v. Bouldin	Sotomayor	9th Circuit	Affirmed	6-2
McDonnell v. United States	Roberts	4th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
Cases marked with an asterisk () were consolidated from different jurisdictions and disposed of via the same opinion. \| Source*: Supreme Court of the United States

April notes

The court reversed or vacated a judgment in eight of the 12 argued cases this sitting (66.7%).
The court issued five authored unanimous opinions during this sitting.
Justice Elena Kagan authored two opinions during the April sitting.

Term opinions issued without argument

Throughout this term, the justices issued per curiam opinions in 13 cases without argument. The court often issues these opinions to summarily reverse the decision of a lower court. As these cases are not argued, they are not included the in judicial data presented above. The cases below are sorted by the date the opinion was handed down.

Per curiam opinions (unargued cases), U.S. Supreme Court, 2015 Term
Case	Court below	Outcome
Maryland v. Kulbicki	Md. Ct. of Appeals	Reversed
Mullenix v. Luna	5th Circuit	Reversed
White v. Wheeler	6th Circuit	Reversed and remanded
James v. City of Boise	Idaho Sup. Ct.	Reversed and remanded
AmGen Inc. v. Harris	9th Circuit	Reversed and remanded
Wearry v. Cain	Dist. Ct. of La. Livingston parish	Reversed and remanded
V.L. v. E.L.	Ala. Sup. Ct.	Reversed and remanded
Caetano v. Massachusetts	Mass. Sup. Jud. Ct.	Vacated and remanded
Montana and Wyoming v. North Dakota	Original jurisdiction	Remanded to special master to determine relief
Woods v. Etherton	6th Circuit	Reversed
Kernan v. Hinojosa	9th Circuit	Reversed
Johnson v. Lee	9th Circuit	Reversed and remanded
Lynch v. Arizona	Ariz. Sup. Ct.	Reversed and remanded
Source: Supreme Court of the United States

Justice data

The following presents data for the 2015 October term of the U.S. Supreme Court at the justice level in argued cases. Tables are presented for a justice's dispositions for the court (Opinion of the court) for this term, as well as a justice's concurrence and dissenting activity.

Opinion statistics

Dispositions of the court in argued cases - 2015 term
Outcome	Total in category	Unanimous	One dissenting vote	Two dissenting votes	Three dissenting votes	4-4 (per curiam)*
Affirmed	30	13	2	8	3	4
Affirmed and remanded	3	1	0	1	1	0
Reversed	5	2	0	0	3	0
Reversed and remanded	19	5	8	3	3	0
Vacated and remanded	23	15	3	3	2	0
Other	2	2	0	0	0	0
Totals	82	38	13	15	12	4
An equally divided 4-4 court will affirm the judgment of the lower court below in a per curiam opinion. Source*: Supreme Court of the United States

Justices' opinion statistics for the court, 2015 Term
Justice	Opinions for the court authored	Concurrences authored	Concurrences joined	Dissents authored	Dissents joined	Other opinions authored*	Other opinions joined*
Chief Justice Roberts	6	1	0	4	3	0	0
Justice Scalia	2	0	0	2	1	0	0
Justice Kennedy	9	2	1	2	0	0	0
Justice Thomas	7	8	2	17	6	6	2
Justice Ginsburg	8	2	0	5	2	3	1
Justice Breyer	8	3	0	1	2	3	2
Justice Alito	7	1	3	5	7	5	1
Justice Sotomayor	7	3	1	5	5	0	4
Justice Kagan	8	1	0	3	0	0	1
Other opinions would include concurrences and/or dissents in part, concurrences and/or dissents from the court's judgment, or any combination of these. This data does not include an individual justice's decision to join the opinion of the court in part. Source*: Supreme Court of the United States

Chief Justice John Roberts

Chief Justice Roberts' opinions for the court, 2015 Term
Sitting	Case	Court below	Outcome	Vote
October	OBB Personenverkehr AG v. Sachs	9th Circuit	Reversed	9-0
November	Foster v. Chatman	Georgia Sup. Ct.	Reversed and remanded	7-1
December	No opinion authored	NA	NA	NA
January	Sturgeon v. Frost	9th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
February	Halo Electronics, Inc., v. Pulse Electronics, Inc. Stryker Corp. v. Zimmer, Inc.	Fed Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
March	U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co.	8th Circuit	Affirmed	8-0
April	McDonnell v. United States	4th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
Source: Supreme Court of the United States

Justice Antonin Scalia

Justice Scalia's opinions for the court, 2015 Term
Sitting	Case	Court below	Outcome	Vote
October	Kansas v. Gleason Kansas v. J. Carr Kansas v. R. Carr	Kansas Sup. Ct.	Reversed and remanded	8-1
November	Shapiro v. McManus	4th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	9-0
Source: Supreme Court of the United States

Justice Anthony Kennedy

Justice Kennedy's opinions for the court, 2015 Term
Sitting	Case	Court below	Outcome	Vote
October	Montgomery v. Louisiana	Louisiana Sup. Ct.	Reversed and remanded	6-3
November	Tyson Foods v. Bouaphakeo	8th Circuit	Affirmed and remanded	6-2
December	Gobeille v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company	2nd Circuit	Affirmed	6-2
December (2)	Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin	5th Circuit	Affirmed	4-3
January	Molina-Martinez v. United States	5th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	8-0
February	Williams v. Pennsylvania	Pennsylvania Sup. Ct.	Vacated and remanded	5-3
March	CRST Van Expedited, Inc. v. EEOC	8th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
March (2)	Welch v. United States	11th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	7-1
April	Encino Motorcars, LLC v. Navarro	9th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	6-2
Source: Supreme Court of the United States

Justice Clarence Thomas

Justice Thomas' opinions for the court, 2015 Term
Sitting	Case	Court below	Outcome	Vote
October	No opinion authored	NA	NA	NA
November	Montanile v. Board of Trustees	11th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	8-1
December	Musacchio v. United States	5th Circuit	Affirmed	9-0
January	Nebraska v. Parker	8th Circuit	Affirmed	8-0
February	Kingdomware Technologies, Inc. v. United States	Fed Circuit	Reversed and remanded	8-0
February (2)	Utah v. Streiff	Utah Sup. Ct.	Reversed	5-3
March	Puerto Rico v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trust Melba Acosta-Febo v. Franklin California Tax-Free Trust	1st Circuit	Affirmed	5-2
April	Universal Health Services v. U.S. ex rel. Escobar	1st Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
Source: Supreme Court of the United States

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Justice Ginsburg's opinions for the court, 2015 Term
Sitting	Case	Court below	Outcome	Vote
October	Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez	9th Circuit	Affirmed and remanded	6-3
November	Bruce v. Samuels	D.C. Circuit	Affirmed	9-0
December	Evenwel v. Abbott	U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas	Affirmed	8-0
January	Bank Markazi v. Peterson	2nd Circuit	Affirmed	6-2
February	Hughes v. Talen Energy Marketing CPV Maryland, LLC v. Talen Energy Marketing	4th Circuit	Affirmed	8-0
March	Betterman v. Montana	Montana Sup. Ct.	Affirmed	8-0
March (2)	Sheriff v. Gillie	6th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	8-0
April	United States v. Bryant	9th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	8-0
Source: Supreme Court of the United States

Justice Stephen Breyer

Justice Breyer's opinions for the court, 2015 Term
Sitting	Case	Court below	Outcome	Vote
October	DirecTV, Inc. v. Imburgia	Calif. Ct. of Appeals	Reversed and remanded	6-3
November	Luis v. United States	11th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	5-3
December	Franchise Tax Board v. Hyatt	Nevada Sup. Ct.	Vacated and remanded	6-2
December (2)	Harris v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission	U.S. District Court, District of Arizona	Affirmed	9-0
January	Heffernan v. City of Paterson	3rd Circuit	Reversed and remanded	6-2
February	Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt	5th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	5-3
March	Wittman v. Personhuballah	U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia	Appeal dismissed	8-0
April	Cuozzo Speed Technologies, LLC v. Lee	Fed Circuit	Affirmed	8-0
Source: Supreme Court of the United States

Justice Samuel Alito

Justice Alito's opinions for the court, 2015 Term
Sitting	Case	Court below	Outcome	Vote
October	Ocasio v. United States	4th Circuit	Affirmed	5-3
November	Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins	9th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	6-2
December	Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin v. United States	D.C. Circuit	Affirmed	9-0
January	No opinion authored	NA	NA	NA
February	Taylor v. United States	4th Circuit	Affirmed	7-1
February (2)	Nichols v. United States	10th Circuit	Reversed	8-0
March	RJR Nabisco, Inc., v. European Community	2nd Circuit	Reversed	4-3
April(*)	Birchfield v. North Dakota	N.D. Sup. Ct.	Reversed and remanded	7-1
April(*)	Beylund v. North Dakota	N.D. Sup. Ct.	Vacated and remanded	7-1
April(*)	Bernard v. Minnesota	Minn. Sup. Ct.	Affirmed	7-1
The Birchfield opinion disposed of three different cases from two different courts in three different ways. Source: Supreme Court of the United States

Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Justice Sotomayor's opinions for the court, 2015 Term
Sitting	Case	Court below	Outcome	Vote
October	Hurst v. Florida	Florida Sup. Ct.	Reversed and remanded	8-1
November	Lockhart v. United States	2nd Circuit	Affirmed	6-2
December	Green v. Brennan	10th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	7-1
January	Americold Realty Trust v. ConAgra Foods	10th Circuit	Affirmed	8-0
February	Husky International Electronics, Inc. v. Ritz	5th Circuit	Reversed and remanded	7-1
March	Simmons v. Himmelreich	6th Circuit	Affirmed and remanded	8-0
April	Dietz v. Bouldin	9th Circuit	Affirmed	6-2
Source: Supreme Court of the United States

Justice Elena Kagan

Justice Kagan's opinions for the court, 2015 Term
Sitting	Case	Court below	Outcome	Vote
October	FERC v. Electric Power Supply Association EnerNOC Inc. et al. v. Electric Power Supply Association	D.C. Circuit	Reversed and remanded	6-2
November	Luna Torres v. Lynch	2nd Circuit	Affirmed	5-3
December	Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, & Smith Inc. v. Manning	3rd Circuit	Affirmed	8-0
January	Puerto Rico v. Sanchez Valle	Puerto Rico Sup. Ct.	Affirmed	6-2
February	Voisine v. United States	1st Circuit	Affirmed	6-2
March	Ross v. Blake	4th Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
April	Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.	2nd Circuit	Vacated and remanded	8-0
April (2)	Mathis v. United States	8th Circuit	Reversed	5-3
Source: Supreme Court of the United States