> Don't we at least have to look at who was replaced and what their voting record was?
Yes. Trump appointed three justices who replaced Ginsberg (strong liberal), Kennedy (moderate, lean conservative), and Scalia (strong conservative). All three of Trump's appointments are more conservative than Kennedy.
It is true that the SCOTUS tends to be less ideologically rigid than the other major institutions and there are plenty of 9-0 decisions. But the West Wing episode is fictional. It is the sort of thing that people with were true. For the most controversial topics (abortion rights, gay rights, civil rights, election policy), the justices are much more aligned with their associated parties. This is because they are selected based on their beliefs on these topics. As in, conservative administrations literally develop a list of justices that they know have opinions about various critical topics and use that to filter their selection options. And liberal administrations do the same.
> All three of Trump's appointments are more conservative than Kennedy
Would it be hopelessly optimistic to suggest one might want to qualify that and say that "based on their previous decisions they appear to be more conservative than Kennedy"?
> SCOTUS tends to be less ideologically rigid than the other major institutions
Yet even in here, commentary on appointments to SCOTUS appears to show a fair degree of ideological rigidity.
> the justices are much more aligned with their associated parties
As I said before, at least from the outside it looks like there is a fair degree of non-alignment within the parties on major topics.
Yes. Trump appointed three justices who replaced Ginsberg (strong liberal), Kennedy (moderate, lean conservative), and Scalia (strong conservative). All three of Trump's appointments are more conservative than Kennedy.
It is true that the SCOTUS tends to be less ideologically rigid than the other major institutions and there are plenty of 9-0 decisions. But the West Wing episode is fictional. It is the sort of thing that people with were true. For the most controversial topics (abortion rights, gay rights, civil rights, election policy), the justices are much more aligned with their associated parties. This is because they are selected based on their beliefs on these topics. As in, conservative administrations literally develop a list of justices that they know have opinions about various critical topics and use that to filter their selection options. And liberal administrations do the same.