Yesterday, we began our discussion of the impact of publication at the Appellate Court on the Illinois Supreme Court’s civil and criminal dockets. We analyzed whether decisions which were published below – presumably, the decisions more open to disagreement – were more likely to lead to dissenting opinions before the Court. Today, we address the
Is Publication Below a Good Predictor of Dissents at the Illinois Supreme Court (Part I)?
Last week, we began our analysis of the impact of publication at the Appellate Court level on the Illinois Supreme Court’s civil and criminal dockets. Today, we look at a related question – are published Appellate Court decisions a good predictor that the Illinois Supreme Court’s decision on the case will be divided? One would
Do Dissents at the Appellate Court Reliably Predict Dissent at the Illinois Supreme Court?
Yesterday, we began our investigation of the importance of dissents at the Appellate Court for litigation at the Illinois Supreme Court. We demonstrated that the often-heard claim that obtaining review at the Court is impossible without an Appellate Court dissent isn’t true, either on the civil or the criminal side. Today, we address a related
The Illinois Supreme Court In 2015: A Statistical Analysis
Originally published on Law360, Feb. 3, 2016. Posted with permission.
For the past three years, we’ve taken a close statistical look at the previous year’s decisions from the Illinois Supreme Court to see what insights could be gained about the justices’ voting patterns and decision making dynamics. (View the 2012 analysis here, 2013
1,493 Opinions, 89,400 Data Points – Our Illinois Supreme Court Data Library Expands
Today, we announce a major expansion of the data library that powers The Illinois Supreme Court Review. For the past year, our analysis of the Illinois Supreme Court’s work has been based upon a data library consisting of the 620 civil cases decided by the Court since January 1, 2000.
For the past several months,
A Look at the Numbers: Previewing State of Illinois v. AFSCME
Today we continue our statistical preview of the Illinois Supreme Court’s upcoming September term with State of lllinois v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 31. AFSCME poses a question with potentially significant ramifications across a range of cases: are the State’s contractual promises in contracts with its employee unions conditional on
A Look at the Numbers: A Preview of Blumenthal v. Brewer
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
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
Does a Sharply Divided Court Ask More Questions?
Yesterday, we addressed the data on average questions asked to each side by the Illinois Supreme Court in unanimous and non-unanimous cases. We concluded that there was no evidence that disagreement on the Court had a consistent effect in either direction on the total number of questions.
But of course, “non-unanimous” is an aggregate statistic,
Does A Unanimous Court Matter?
Last week, we began our analysis of questioning patterns on the Court by addressing the most basic question of all: which side gets the most questions? Today, we address a related question: does it matter if there is disagreement on the Court?
Certain theories about the role of oral argument in appellate decision making would