Today, we begin a short break from our analysis of the data from the past seven years’ oral arguments to offer a statistical preview of two of the highlights of the upcoming September term. We begin with Blumenthal v. Brewer, set for the September 23 call of the docket, which poses the question of
Is the Justice Asking the First Question Writing an Opinion?
Last week, we looked at how often the first question was asked by the author of the majority opinion. Today we broaden the question – how likely is it that the first questioner to both sides is writing something – the majority, a special concurrence or a dissent?
As we discussed last week, if there
Does the Area of the Law Impact the Number of Questions?
Last week, we continued our look at the question patterns in civil cases at the Illinois Supreme Court by analyzing whether there’s a higher-than-random likelihood that the Justice asking the first question to either side is writing the majority opinion.
Today, we continue our analysis with a somewhat different issue: do the Justices tend to
Does the First Question Come From the Author of the Majority Opinion?
Yesterday, we reviewed the record-holders from the last seven years of oral arguments at the Illinois Supreme Court: most and least total questions, most and least questions for appellants and appellees, and so on.
Today, we turn to an entirely different question: what’s the likelihood that the first question came from the author of the
Most Questions in One Argument and Other Records: Seven Years’ Arguments at the Illinois Supreme Court
Today I thought we’d take a bit of a break from all the number-crunching to do something a little different: talk about the records, the “mosts” and “leasts,” from the 233 oral arguments at the Illinois Supreme Court we reviewed and charted?
The ground rules are the same as they’ve been throughout our investigation of
How Long Are the Odds Against the Side That Gets More Questions?
As we’ve been discussing for the past few weeks, the academic literature has consistently concluded that the losing party, on average, gets more questions in oral argument than the winning party. Yesterday, we addressed whether the result – affirmance or reversal – or the vote margin had the greatest impact on the difference in questions
Which Matters More for the Difference in Oral Argument Questions: the Result or the Margin?
As we discussed a few weeks ago, the academic literature on question patterns in appellate oral argument has consistently shown that the losing party tends to get more questions. We’ve shown that that result also holds for the Illinois Supreme Court’s civil caseload, considered as a whole, between 2008 and 2014.
Today, we continue our
Does More Active Questioning From the Illinois Supreme Court Suggest a Longer Majority Opinion?
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at the data on the patterns in the Illinois Supreme Court’s questions at oral argument to see what we could conclude about the likely future progress of a case. Yesterday, we looked at whether particularly active questioning from the Court suggested that the case might be under
Does More Active Questioning from the Illinois Supreme Court Suggest More Time Under Submission?
Last week, we investigated several questions about the data on oral argument question patterns at the Illinois Supreme Court: (1) is the party who gets more questions statistically more likely to lose; (2) do the odds against winning get longer as the difference in the number of questions asked one side and the other increases;
Does Lopsided Questioning Signal a Unanimous Decision?
Today, we turn to a related question: do a party’s chances of winning fall as the questioning becomes more lopsided? What about the vote – is counsel who gets