Today, we’re looking at the amicus filing data on criminal cases for the years 2005 through 2020.
Just as in our earlier period, amicus briefs were few and far between in criminal cases. None were filed in 2005, 2007-2008, 2010 or 2016. Four percent had extra briefs in 2006. That rose to six percent in
When we left off our study, one-third of the Supreme Court’s civil cases were drawing at least one amicus brief. In 2005, 27.08% of civil cases did. That figure rose to 34.69% in 2006 before falling by nearly half but rose back to 31.58% in 2011 and 32.35% in 2013. In 2017, 61.54% of the
Just as we did for civil cases in the last post, we begin by addressing the percentage of criminal cases which drew at least one amicus brief for the years 1990 through 2004.
As we see in Table 1744, the answer is: not many. In 1990, only 2.9% of criminal cases drew at least one
In the past twenty years, several academic researchers have extended the study of amicus briefs to state courts of last resort. In 2001, Professors Paul Brace and Kellie Sims Butler published “New Perspectives for the Comparative Study of the Judiciary: The State Supreme Court Project,” 22 The Justice System Journal 3 (2001). They assembled data
This time, we’re looking at the data for average votes to affirm in cases not affirmed unanimously.
In 2010, Division Four averaged 5.5 votes to affirm in cases not unanimously affirmed. The Second District averaged 2.5 votes and the Fourth averaged 2.33. In 2011, the Third District averaged 3.5 votes and the Fourth averaged three.
This week, we’re wrapping up our analysis of unanimity and votes to affirm in cases not affirmed unanimously. First up, the likelihood, District by District, that civil decisions will be affirmed unanimously for the years 2010 to 2020.
In 2010, 60% of decisions from Division Four of the First were affirmed unanimously, as were half
This time, we’re looking at the second part of our analysis for the years 2000 through 2009 – excluding unanimous affirmances, how many votes to affirm the Appellate Court did each District and Division average?
In 2000, decisions from the Second District fared best, averaging 2.5 votes to affirm. The Fourth District and the Second
Today we’re continuing our two-part analysis of each District of the Appellate Court’s performance at the Supreme Court since 1990. Question 1, which we address below, is how likely is a civil decision from each part of the Appellate Court to be affirmed unanimously? Question 2, which we’ll look at for the next post, is
Last time, we reviewed the percentage of the time the Supreme Court affirmed civil decisions from each District unanimously. This time we’re looking at average votes to affirm in non-unanimous decisions.
In 1990, Division Four of the First District averaged three votes to affirm. In 1991, Division Five averaged three votes. In 1992, Division Four
This time, we’re beginning a multi-week inquiry: (1) what percentage of the time does the Supreme Court affirm each District and Division of the Appellate Court unanimously; and (2) among non-unanimous decisions, what’s the average votes to affirm for each court?
In Table 1729, we report the percentage of unanimous affirmances for each District and