Perry v. Merits Systems

A Definitive Look at the New OAs Led by KBJ

Something is clearly different this Supreme Court term after only two weeks of oral arguments. There is a chippiness in the air that wasn’t overtly present before. The distinction between the left and the right of the Court is still in play, but newly appointed Justice Jackson has had control of the proceedings far more…

A Difference of Opinion

Since Chief Justice John Roberts joined the Supreme Court in 2005, several pairs of justices have had notable disagreements in multiple cases. This is at least in part due to the justices’ polarity of viewpoints and interpretive methods. It nonetheless creates clear divisions on the Court as the justices have hardened viewpoints on many substantive issues…

That’s a SCOTUS Wrap

This term helped define what the Supreme Court may look like moving forward (of course discounting the possibility of other upcoming vacancies). With Justice Gorsuch’s seemingly conservative stances we appear to be moving back into a similar territory that existed with Justice Scalia on the Court. Although the orally argued cases this term were not…

Justice Gorsuch: What We Know and What We Should Expect

Justice Gorsuch is just over two months into his tenure on the Supreme Court. There are many unknowns regarding how he will judge at this level. The cases he will decide on the Supreme Court are predominately different from those he saw on the 10th Circuit. There is also an intuition that circuit court judges’…

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…

The New Normal: Justice Gorsuch’s First Week of Supreme Court Oral Arguments

In some ways, this was just another week for the Supreme Court. The Court released decisions with the Court’s right splitting with the Court’s left. Orders were set forth in many petitions pending before the Court. The Justices heard seven oral arguments. But there was a new voice in the proceedings. A voice that sought…