Study shows Supreme Court increasingly business-friendly

The New York Times reported an analysis of about 1,450 Supreme Court decisions since 1953 showed the court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. "ruled for business interests 61 percent of the time, compared with 46 percent in the last five years of the court led by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist." For example, the Times cites 13 of 16 cases in which justices "favored the" US Chamber of Commerce, which threw its lobbying power to lift campaign spending restrictions in the Citizens United decision, and urged the court to consider class-action status in Wal-Mart's gender discrimination suit. The joint study by Northwestern University and the University of Chicago added the court's "engagement with business issues has risen along with the emergence of a breed of lawyers specializing in Supreme Court advocacy ..."