Justices of the Supreme Court rarely give public comments on words or actions of members of the elected branches of the federal government. This made the recent spat between Chief Justice John Roberts and President Donald Trump, when the two intrinsically debated the role of partisanship in the federal judiciary, all the more surprising and…
Tag: Jesner v. Arab Bank
Even with Five Decisions Today the Court is Still Setting Records for its Slow Pace
Today marks the 225th day of the 2017 Supreme Court term. The Court compensated for a slow term so far with five new decisions. Even with decisions in cases Murphy v. NCAA, Dahda v. United States, Byrd v. United States, United States v. Sanchez-Gomez, and McCoy v. Louisiana, the Court is still behind its output every other…
Out of Steam or Out of Time
For those following the Supreme Court, the notion that the Court is moving slowly this term has already been reiterated multiple times. The first clear notion of the Court’s historically slow pace came with the timing of the Court’s second signed decision which was the modern Court’s latest second opinion released in a term. Other analyses…
BriefCatching 2017 Cert-Stage Filings
Good writing quality is one of the greatest assets for attorneys practicing before any court. While there is no universally accepted measure of good writing, software engineers are currently designing programs that measure writing quality in innovative and accurate ways. In past, Empirical SCOTUS has employed off-the-shelf metrics for writing quality to compare filings…
Who’s on the Case: Successful Cert Petitions 2017
The Supreme Court has its calendar set through January 2018 with ten cases already accepted for argument that are as of yet unscheduled. The total number of case grants so far is 53, and with consolidated cases this will lead to 47 arguments. This puts the Court on pace for one of the slowest grant rates…
Name Dropping in Oral Argument
Supreme Court oral argument is the setting where attorneys get to present their cases to the justices. It is a chance for justices to ask questions and for attorneys to convey important information; especially information that might not be contained in the briefs. Oral argument also functions as a setting for dialogue. In this respect,…
Empirical SCOTUS 