ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Ideological leanings of United States Supreme Court justices

Okay, so you know how sometimes grown-ups disagree about things like what game to play or what movie to watch? Well, the United States Supreme Court is made up of 9 grown-ups who sometimes disagree about big things like the rules for the whole country.

Now, these grown-ups are called judges, and they have different ideas about how those rules should be made. Some judges might think that the most important thing is to keep things the way they always have been, while other judges might think that it's important to change things to make them better for everybody.

These different ideas are called "ideological leanings" because they lean towards different beliefs or opinions about how things should be done. So, some judges might lean more towards conservative ideas, which means they want to keep things the way they are, while other judges might lean more towards liberal ideas, which means they want to change things to make them better.

Now, the thing is that these judges are picked by the President of the United States, who might also have different ideas about how things should be done. So, sometimes a President might pick judges who agree with their own ideas, and sometimes a President might pick judges who have different ideas.

But even though these judges have different ideas, they still have to work together to make decisions that are fair and follow the rules of the country.