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Last week, we continued our detailed look at the questioning patterns of the Justices of the Illinois Supreme Court with Justice Thomas L. Kilbride.  Today, we turn to the question patterns of Justice Charles E. Freeman.

Justice Freeman’s question patterns differ from Justices Burke and Kilbride in several ways.  In cases where Justice Freeman votes with the majority, he averages slightly more questions to the appellant, regardless of whether the Court reverses or affirms.  Justice Freeman actually averages slightly fewer questions when he’s voting with the majority in a reversal and writing the majority opinion than when he’s not, and that pattern holds with both appellants and appellees.  He averages slightly more questions when he’s writing a concurrence, but that data set is quite small, so the conclusion should be taken with caution.

When Justice Freeman is voting with the majority in an affirmance, the pattern is much the same.  Justice Freeman averages more questions to the appellant – the losing party – when he’s writing the majority opinion in an affirmance, but slightly fewer to the appellee.  Writing a concurrence has no consistent impact on Justice Freeman’s question patterns in affirmances.

Justice Freeman tends to ask significantly more questions of the appellant when the Court reverses with him in the minority than in reversals where he’s in the majority, but fewer questions in such cases of the appellee.  Although Justice Freeman averages more questions to the appellee when writing a dissent than when he’s not writing, dissents have no impact on his questioning to the appellant.

The pattern is quite similar when Justice Freeman is in the minority of an affirmance.  He tends to ask both sides at least slightly more questions in such cases than when he’s with the majority in an affirmance.  Although Justice Freeman asks slightly more questions of appellees when he’s dissenting, dissents have no real impact on the intensity of his questions to appellants.

Table 83

Justice Freeman tends to ask significantly more questions of the appellant when the Court reverses with him in the minority than in reversals where he’s in the majority, but fewer questions in such cases of the appellee.  Although Justice Freeman averages more questions to the appellee when writing a dissent than when he’s not writing, dissents have no impact on his questioning to the appellant.

The pattern is quite similar when Justice Freeman is in the minority of an affirmance.  He tends to ask both sides at least slightly more questions in such cases than when he’s with the majority in an affirmance.  Although Justice Freeman asks slightly more questions of appellees when he’s dissenting, dissents have no real impact on the intensity of his questions to appellants.

Table 84

Unlike Justices Burke and Kilbride, Justice Freeman’s question patterns don’t appear to vary significantly when he’s writing an opinion.  Tomorrow, we’ll look at whether Justice Freeman’s voting and writing has an impact on the likelihood of his asking either side the first question.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Jay Carriker (no changes).