According to some experts, it is appearing more and more as though U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is not the conservative judge whom former President Donald Trump appointed.

Recently, Above The Law's Staci Zaretsky published a piece asking whether Barrett might be the court's "new swing vote."

Similarly, Law Daily Report has published an article, titled, Amy Coney Barrett Leaves Supreme Court Guessing. 

The impetus for these reports - and others - is Barrett's recent decisions in some high-profile cases.

A big surprise

Barrett has been on the high court for over three years now, and, for the most part, she does side with her conservative colleagues.

Law Daily Report writes, "During her first and second years on the Supreme Court, Barrett voted in line with her conservative colleagues on 70 and 73 percent of cases, respectively."

But, one of the bigger surprises came in the Supreme Court's recent presidential immunity ruling. This is the case where the court ruled that former President Donald Trump - and all U.S. presidents - have immunity from prosecution for official acts.

Barrett, to the surprise of many conservatives, partially sided in the case with Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the most liberal judges to ever sit on the bench of the Supreme Court.

Law Daily Report writes:

In July, she argued that the Supreme Court needed a more nuanced way of applying the presidential immunity that the court gave Trump, explicitly endorsing parts of the dissent penned by her liberal colleague Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Another swing vote?

If you listen to or read mainstream news media, then you have probably heard that the Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. This statement is true if by "conservative" one simply means "appointed by a Republican president."

But, in reality, the court has three to four solidly conservative members in Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch. Brett Kavanaugh also tends to lean conservative, but not as much as Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch.

On the other hand, Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson are decidedly liberal judges.

Chief Justice John Roberts, for many years, has been a toss-up, and, now it is looking as though Barrett wants to join him.

If true, then the court's true makeup is something along the lines of four conservatives, three liberals, and two toss-ups. This is hardly the "conservative Trump court" that members of the political left are always claiming it to be.