Female attorneys have a long history arguing before the Supreme Court dating back to Belva Lockwood’s argument in 1880. While Lockwood’s argument helped proverbially break the glass ceiling for women to practice before the Supreme Court, such opportunities have proven difficult to come by as female attorneys only make up a small fraction of the…
Month: October 2017
A Record Set by the OSG During the Obama Years
The Solicitor General’s Office (OSG) has a special relationship with the Supreme Court. In the role of adviser the Solicitor General is often referred to as the 10th Justice. The OSG enjoys much higher than average success in bringing cases to the Court and is even asked to give its opinions on whether the Court should…
Attorneys in the Clutch
Earlier this year I ran a blog post on the most powerful justices across time, which focused on their decisions in cases with single vote margin majorities. That post accounted for the decision makers, but it did not consider the attorneys whose arguments factor into the justices’ decision calculi. This post takes a look at…
The Strategic Right – Oral Arguments at the Beginning of the 2017 Term
Several possible facets of the justices’ new oral argument strategies became apparent during the first week of oral arguments for the 2017 Supreme Court term. The Court began with a series of high-profile cases – perhaps none as discussed and hotly contested as Gill v. Whitford which looks at gerrymandered voting districts in Wisconsin. The…
Fast Out of the Gates (SCOTUS’ October 2017 Oral Arguments)
On October 2nd, the Supreme Court will be back in session with the first oral arguments of 2017. Since Justice Scalia passed away in February 2016 the justices have taken a light caseload and generally have not heard cases that would lead to great rifts among themselves. This non-divisive set of cases during the 2016…
Empirical SCOTUS 