tidytuesday_scotus.R

library(tidyverse)

judges_people <- readr::read_csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rfordatascience/tidytuesday/main/data/2025/2025-06-10/judges_people.csv')
judges_appointments <- readr::read_csv('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rfordatascience/tidytuesday/main/data/2025/2025-06-10/judges_appointments.csv')

judges_appointments <- judges_appointments |> 
  mutate(across(ends_with("date"), lubridate::mdy)) 

scotus <- judges_appointments |> 
  filter(str_detect(court_name, "Supreme Court of the United States")) |> 
  mutate(end_date = if_else(is.na(termination_date), lubridate::mdy(retirement_from_active_service), termination_date)) |> 
  mutate(end_date = if_else(is.na(end_date), as.Date("2015-01-01"), end_date)) |> 
  left_join(judges_people) |> 
  mutate(across(starts_with("name"), \(x) ifelse(is.na(x), "", x))) |> 
  mutate(name = paste(name_first, name_middle, name_last)) |> 
  mutate(name = ifelse(name == "John Marshall Harlan" & birth_date == 1899, paste(name, "II"), name)) |> 
  mutate(chief = str_detect(court_name, "Chief"))

scotus_names <- scotus |> 
  arrange(commission_date) |> 
  distinct(name, .keep_all = TRUE) |> 
  filter(end_date > as.Date("1900-01-01")) |> 
  mutate(name = reorder(name, commission_date)) 

scotus |> 
  filter(end_date > as.Date("1900-01-01")) |> 
  mutate(name = reorder(name, commission_date)) |> 
  ggplot(aes(commission_date, name)) + 
  geom_segment(
    data = filter(scotus, chief, end_date > as.Date("1900-01-01")),
    mapping = aes(xend = end_date, color = president_party), linewidth = 1
  ) +
  geom_segment(aes(xend = end_date, color = president_party)) +
  geom_text(
    data = scotus_names,
    mapping = aes(label = name), size = 2, hjust = 1, nudge_x = -800, family = "Avenir Next Condensed"
    ) +
  scale_color_manual(values = c("blue", "red")) + 
  labs(y = NULL, x = NULL, color = "Appointed by", title = "US Supreme Court", 
       subtitle = "1900-2015") +
  scale_x_date(expand = c(1/4, 0), minor_breaks = "10 years", date_breaks = "20 years", date_labels = "%Y") +
  theme_minimal(base_family = "Avenir Next Condensed") + 
  theme(axis.text.y = element_blank(), legend.position = "none", panel.grid.major.y = element_blank())