The Supreme Court issued its decision in Feliciano v. Department of Transportation today, revealing a quite unusual 5-4 split among the justices.
Justice Gorsuch wrote for the Court, joined by the Chief Justice, and Justices Sotomayor,, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. Justice Thomas dissented, joined by Justices Alito, Kagan, and Jackson.
This split is particularly interesting because it cannot be explained by usual ideological or doctrinal categories. This is not a right-left split, nor a formalist-pragmatist split. The opinion also does not divide the justices along other identifiable methodological lines, as the Court's most committed textualists are divided. While it is not unusual to see the Chief join the Trump nominees in disagreement with Justices Alito and Thomas, we don't typically see the liberal justices split in this way (Sotomayor v. Kagan and Jackson), and the opinion.
