Empirical SCOTUS has analytics from today’s opinions (May 30, 2017). These are organized a bit differently from last week’s results. We’ve included a measure for opinion readability using the Gunning Fog Index (lower scores tend to equate to easier reading). The most frequent words in each majority opinion are also provided. The Court release four…
Month: May 2017
The Year of the Patent
Possibly due to its eight Justice configuration, the Supreme Court heard a unique slate of cases this term with no noted landmark cases or decisions. Then again perhaps landmark is in the eye of the beholder. This term the Supreme Court heard six patent cases which conceivably is the most such cases the Supreme Court has heard…
Opinion Stats: Cooper v. Harris and Word Count Comparison for 5/22/2017
Cooper v. Harris Opinion Oral Argument Kagan Majority Sentences 718 Words 9826 Characters 49263 Syllables 15499 Polysyllables 1632 Words per sentence 13.685 Syllables per sentence 21.586 Syllables per word 1.577 Thomas Concurrence Sentences 20 Words 262 Characters 1246 Syllables 384 Polysyllables 43 Words per sentence 13.1 Syllables per sentence 19.2 Syllables per word 1.466 Alito…
Opinion Stats: Water Splash
Alito Majority Opinion Sentences 256 Words 3042 Characters 15199 Syllables 4828 Polysyllables 581 Words per sentence 11.883 Syllables per sentence 18.859 Syllables per word 1.587 Oral Argument Oral Argument: Order of Speaking
Opinion Stats: TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC
This is the first of a new and (hopefully) regular feature added to the blog. Link to Opinion Link to Oral Argument Thomas Majority Opinion When each Justice/Attorney Spoke
The First Batch of Decisions Each Term
Through the first thirty-five slip-opinions of the Supreme Court’s 2016 term there are notable similarities and differences from the Court’s prior terms. All decisions so far this term were determined by eight Justices or fewer as Justice Gorsuch has yet to sign on to a majority or separate slip-opinion (Beckles v. United States, for instance…
Easy Reading (By Supreme Court Standards)
Supreme Court briefs are team efforts usually with a main coordinating partner/attorney who is known as the “counsel of record.” Although the number of attorneys staffing briefs varies, at the Supreme Court level the number of attorneys listed on the brief is often more than five and can be upwards of ten. This does not…
Attorneys and Firms in the Supreme Court 2016
The Supreme Court wrapped up oral arguments for the 2016 term on April 26, 2017 with arguments in Sandoz Inc. v. Amgen and Maslenjak v. United States. These marked the 63rd and 64th arguments the Justices heard this term – down five from the 69 arguments the Justices heard a year prior. While the Court…
The Justices in Oral Arguments 2016
Supreme Court oral arguments are the only times that litigators directly and verbally interact with the Justices about pending cases. The scholarship on whether these arguments factor into decision outcomes is mixed with some suggesting that the Justices come into oral arguments with predefined views in most cases while others suggesting that a variety of…
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