Yesterday, we began our review of the limited data from civil cases in which Chief Justice Fitzgerald both participated in oral argument and voted between 2008 and 2010.  Today, we wrap up our look at the civil docket.

As we noted yesterday, the Chief Justice voted with the majority in 32 civil affirmances, writing the majority opinion in five of those cases.  In those cases, there was an 18.75% chance that he would ask the first question of appellants, and a 12.5% chance that he’d lead off with the appellees.  There are only a few affirmances in which Chief Justice Fitzgerald wrote the majority opinion, but the impact of writing was the opposite of what we would expect.  In those cases, there was a 20% chance that he would ask the first question of appellees, and he never asked the first questions of appellants.  In affirmances where Chief Justice Fitzgerald didn’t write an opinion, there was a 22.22% chance that he would ask the first question of appellants, and an 11.11% chance that he would lead off against the appellees.

As we mentioned yesterday, Chief Justice Fitzgerald’s patterns in civil reversals were the opposite of most Justices – he averaged more questions to the winning party than to the side who lost.  Overall in reversals, Chief Justice Fitzgerald asked the first question of appellants in 32.73% of cases, and led off with the appellees in only 14.55%.  On the reversal side, writing the majority opinion meant it was far more likely that the Chief Justice would begin the questions – in those cases, there was a 55.56% chance that he would ask the first question of appellants, and he began against appellees a third of the time.  In the 46 civil reversals where Chief Justice Fitzgerald didn’t write an opinion, there was a 28.26% chance that he’d ask the first question of appellants, and a 10.87% chance that he’d begin against the appellees.

Chief Justice Fitzgerald heard argument and voted with the minority in only one civil case between 2008 and 2010 – a reversal.  In that case, he didn’t begin the questioning with either side.

Join us back here next Tuesday as we turn our attention to Chief Justice Fitzgerald’s question patterns in criminal cases.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Phil Roeder (no changes).