It has been four months since the untimely death of Justice Antonin Scalia.  Over that four months, we have gotten some proof about how important a full Supreme Court is to a functioning court.  Today, we got more reminders.

In March, we learned that, in two cases heard before Justice Scalia’s death, the remaining eight justices were deadlocked 4-4, meaning that the decision of the lower court stood.  One of these two cases involved a First Amendment challenge to mandatory union dues for public employees.  The petitioners (the parties that lost in the lower court) in both cases have asked for rehearing, and the Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to grant rehearing.  Today, we learned that two more cases had ended in a 4-4 tie.  One of the two was a December case involving the jurisdiction of tribal court.  The other (and the first deadlocked case argued after Justice Scalia’s death) was United States v. Texas — the immigration policy case.  (Additionally, today saw a decision in the Affirmative Action case which I will discuss later this weekend.)

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