Oral Arguments OT 2015: A Look Back

On Wednesday April 29th the Supreme Court Justices heard their final oral argument of the Term with McDonnell v. United States.  The Justices heard a total of 69 arguments from October 2015 through April 2016 (not accounting separately for consolidated dockets; links to all of the transcripts, audio, and information about all of the cases…

The Justices’ Stances in United States v. Texas

The United States government represented by the Solicitor General is the most frequent party before the U.S. Supreme Court.  These regular appearances will be quite pronounced over the next two weeks.  The Supreme Court hears oral arguments in ten more cases before the end of the Term, and a representative from the Office of the Solicitor…

A Busy Year at the OSG

The United States Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) within the U.S. Department of Justice has its hands full with Supreme Court litigation.  Granted, “busy” is a relative term as the OSG has had fewer Supreme Court filings this Term than it has since 2010 (which will almost assuredly still be the case at the end…

The Regulars: Supreme Court Litigation 2015-2016

  Since 2001 the Supreme Court has written full opinions in 67-75 orally argued cases per Term.  We are certain not to see more than 75 this Term and nowhere near the 151 such cases in the 1982 and 1983 Terms, which were high points for the second half of the 20th century.  With fewer cases,…

The Last Leg of the Term

(image from loc.gov) The end of oral arguments for this Supreme Court Term is around the corner.  With 21 cases left (not counting joined dockets in the same case) I compiled some stats on what is still to come.  This post looks at the attorneys, firms, and parties in these 21 cases.  There are two sections of…

Successful Cert Amici 2014

With 7,006 cases disposed of during the 2014 Supreme Court term, Supreme Court Justices and clerks had an abundance of cases on their plates.  One way that the Justices and clerks find their way to the more important cases (specifically to cases that are important to people beyond the individual parties in the case) is…

Cert Winners 2014: Attorneys and Firms

Thinking of submitting a case to the Supreme Court? Most likely not.  If so, be prepared to have your case rejected.  The Supreme Court is extremely selective about the cases it hears typically only taking cases with circuit splits, of great importance, and with issues that have sufficiently percolated through the lower courts.  The majority…