Article III of the U.S. Constitution both limits the reach of the Supreme Court and at the same time gives the Justices great power. As the only branch of the federal government with life tenure, the judicial branch maneuvers oftentimes outside of public spotlight and so judges are not subject to the same public pressures…
Month: March 2017
Patterns of Eight Justices: Will They Persist with a New Court Member?
The Supreme Court has had eight members for over a year now. In that time the Justices authored seventy-seven majority opinions. Of those opinions sixty-eight were signed. Through this period there have been some interesting idiosyncrasies from the Justices that we haven’t seen in the past. We have seen new potential voting coalitions as well…
What Recent SCOTUS Confirmations Tell Us About the Gorsuch Hearings
Supreme Court confirmation hearings involve much pomp and circumstance. Recent nominees including Gorsuch (thus far) shy away from directly answering substantive policy questions, generally resorting to the retort that they do not wish to speak on issues that might come before the Court. For the senators, part of the confirmation game is strategic. Prior to…
The Final Stretch: Cases from the Last Two Months of Supreme Court Oral Arguments
Two months of oral arguments remain on the Supreme Court’s calendar. That equates to twenty-four arguments with eleven in March and thirteen in April (some with consolidated cases). The Court usually saves some of the most publicly recognized cases for the end of the term. Last year in March and April the Court took up…
The (Not So) New Face of the OSG
Surprisingly, or perhaps not so surprisingly, the search for the new Solicitor General led to one of the individuals discussed as a likely candidate early on in the process. In the interim, a bevy of names were floated as possibilities including attorneys Chuck Cooper, George Conway, and Miguel Estrada. But as George Conway’s name faded…
Taking Care of Business
The Supreme Court tackles fewer cases by the year. SCOTUSBlog’s statistics as reported by First Mondays Podcast show that the Court has also been slower in writing signed opinions this term than in recent terms. What is leading to these changes? One clear anomaly from the Court’s norm is the length of time the Court…
Empirical SCOTUS 