There have been 36 justices to serve on the court since the 1946 term. Of the 10 most pro-business justices since then, six are members of the current court. Two were appointed by former President Obama (Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor) and have decided in favor of business more than some of their Republican-appointed colleagues. (Kagan and Sotomayor are the most recent additions, so the number of cases they've heard make comparisons difficult.)

In the original study, no Democratic appointee decided for business more than any Republican appointee.

The justices' behavior tends to be different in cases that are narrowly decided by a vote of five to four. For example, Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg's votes are only slightly more anti-business than average, but in close votes they are much more likely to be on the anti-business side, according to the 2013 paper. Ideologically conservative or moderate justices are three times more likely to vote on the pro-business side in those close cases than in other cases.

Those 5-4 cases likely have high ideological stakes, and the data show that justices are more likely to split along the lines of the party that nominated them — Republican appointees become more pro-business, while Democrat appointees swing the other way. That party gap has widened in the current court.

The Supreme Court is unlikely to turn against businesses any time soon. Two analyses of Trump's nominee, Neil Gorsuch, place him on the conservative end of the spectrum, near Justice Samuel Alito. If we assume that Gorsuch will also be near Alito's positions in business cases, that will leave us with one of the most business-friendly courts in history. While some Democrats have signaled that they will slow the nominee's approval process, it's unlikely that they will be able to block the appointment completely.