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Bottom tier: Sotomayor and KBJ. There are random white male judges (who went to unremarkable state law schools) I could pick from my state's court of appeals (not even supreme court) who would leave both in the dust.
Next tier: Kavanaugh and Barrett. Subpar by federal appellate judge standards. Probably still higher than most of the recent retirees from the Supreme Court, though.
Next tier: Thomas (probably higher when younger--some of his opinions interpreting and harmonizing conflicting federal statutes are not for lightweights) and Roberts. Maybe Gorsuch, but maybe he's highest tier. Gorsuch's writing style is excessively casual and sometimes sloppy, which I don't think is a good feature for a justice.
Highest tier: Alito and Kagan.
Agreed, though I think Gorsuch's writing style is mostly a calculated folksy affectation. Still annoying if that's not your bag, but he's very clearly going for a "less strident and elitist Scalia" image.
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