As we all await the decision on Moody v NetChoice, we ran the oral argument and the transcript against our Optimized Legal Audio (OLA) platform to see what it ascertained about the justices’ leanings. The conclusions show possible surprises that appear consistent with our suppositions of votes in other cases yet to be decided.

To caution the readers, OLA has about an 86% accuracy. I would never profess that it gets every vote right or for that matter, the direction always right in every case. It has proven to be better than prevailing predictions of vote leanings of courts and that to me, as a scholar, is the essence of research – a continuous journey towards improvement.

Our analysis of Moody v. NetChoice shows that the justices’ votes will predominantly go towards NetChoice. It is unlikely to be unanimous. Our engine detects strong agreement between Justices Gorsuch and Alito and the petitioner. The swing justices here appear to be Kavanaugh and Barrett. Our analytics indicate that they support Clement and NetChoice, as do Justices Sotomayor, Jackson and Kagan. I had written before about how Kavanaugh and Barrett appear to be at the new center of the Court. Should OLA be correct, this will be another case where that view will be reinforced.

Our platform is capable of detecting the key moments of a case that attorneys may use in a post argument review. In such proceedings, we give the digital footprint of the one or two questions that the justices may ask to showcase the ultimate issue. In Moody v. NetChoice, that moment is visually shown below.

OLA then auto-references the transcript to point out the interchange that it believes may be a turning point.

A potential use of this tool is for attorneys after oral argument to articulate to their clients, candidly and clearly, how they think the proceedings went. In such instances, we believe OLA can super-charge such communication with a clear, objective and repeatable set of guidance to the attorneys and help in next steps for all.

Please contact adam@feldmannet.com with any questions.