WASHINGTON — There has been a remarkable outbreak of harmony at the Supreme Court. Of the seven decisions issued in the Past two weeks, six were unanimous.
There have been no dissents in more than 60 percent of the 46 cases decided so far this term. At this point last year, the justices were unanimous just 48 percent of the time, according to statistics compiled by Scotusblog. In the two terms before that, 52 percent of the cases decided by now were unanimous.
The harmony will dissipate in the final weeks of the term, which will probably conclude in late June. It is the divisive and hard-fought decisions that take the longest to produce, as the justices exchange draft opinions and respond to one other in evolving majority opinions, concurrences and dissents.
The marquee decisions of the term -- on affirmative action, voting rights and same-sex marriage -- will almost certainly be closely divided on the core issues. But the overall percentage of unanimous decisions is unlikely to drop to 40 percent, the average rate for full terms in recent years.
The recent unanimous cases are noteworthy for a second reason: Many truly speak with a single voice. The court led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has set records for faux unanimity, where the justices agree on the result but barnacle the majority opinion with concurrences expressing caveats, interpretive glosses or wholly different rationales. The recent unanimous cases are different. In five of the six, there was just one opinion.