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Last week, we completed our review of the Illinois Supreme Court’s dissents between 2000 and 2016.  Today, we begin our analysis of the Supreme Court’s amicus briefs.

We report total amicus briefs in civil cases in Table 348 below.  The Court accepted 16 amicus briefs in non-unanimous decisions in 2000, 15 in 2001 and 15 the following year.  During those same three years, the Court accepted five, fifteen and twenty-six amicus briefs (respectively) in unanimous cases.

In 2003, the Court accepted only 7 amicus briefs in non-unanimous civil decisions, to 17 on the unanimous side.  The following year, the Court filed 16 amicus briefs among non-unanimous decisions on the civil side to 40 on the unanimous side.  In 2005, there were 35 amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases, to 42 on the unanimous side.  In 2006, there were twenty-three amicus briefs filed in non-unanimous civil cases to 26 briefs in unanimous decisions.  Finally, in 2007 the Court filed eight amicus briefs in non-unanimous civil decisions to 19 among unanimous decisions.

Table 348

We report the average briefs per case in Table 349 below.  In 2000, the Court averaged one amicus brief in non-unanimous civil cases, and 0.23 briefs in unanimous decisions.  The following year, the Court averaged 1.15 amicus briefs in non-unanimous civil decisions and 0.39 in unanimous cases.  The following year, amicus briefs fell to an average of 0.88 among non-unanimous decisions.  The Court averaged 0.79 amicus briefs per case in unanimous decisions. 

The Court averaged 0.5 amicus briefs in non-unanimous civil decisions in 2003, to 0.53 briefs in unanimous civil decisions.  The data remained flat in 2004 – the Court averaged 1 amicus brief per case in non-unanimous civil decisions to 1.05 briefs in unanimous decisions.

In 2005, the Court averaged 3.89 amicus briefs per case in non-unanimous cases, to only 1.08 in unanimous ones.  The following year, the data returned to baseline: 1.15 average amicus briefs in non-unanimous cases, 0.9 in unanimous decisions.  Finally, in 2007, the Court accepted one amicus brief per case in non-unanimous decisions, to 0.58 in unanimous cases.

Table 349

Join us back here tomorrow as we examine the amicus briefs in criminal cases between 2000 and 2007.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Ron Frazier (no changes).