Two items of particular interest on the U.S. Supreme Court came across my desk last week. The first was a National Law Journal article titled “Does Thomas’ Silence Thwart Advocacy?” (thanks to Robert Ambrogi’s LawSites). Author Tony Mauro notes that it has been four years since Justice Thomas has asked a question during oral argument and wonders if that is too long—does that reticence damage the Court, its decision-making, and Justice Thomas’s reputation? Mauro highlights a recent law review note on the subject.
The second item I saw was a brand new article in Law Library Journal titled “Dissents from the Bench: A Compilation of Oral Dissents by U.S. Supreme Court Justices.” Authors Jill Duffy and Elizabeth Lambert have sifted through various sources to compile oral dissents from the Burger, Rehnquist, and Roberts Courts, October Term 1969 to present. The piece provides a fascinating look at the Court’s cases from the last 40 years that have stirred the most impassioned dissents.
To delve further into the Supreme Court, there are many resources available. The Law Library offers two research guides, one on Supreme Court Records and Briefs and the other on Supreme Court Oral Arguments. Be sure to visit the Oyez Project, an archive of oral argument audio files, and the SCOTUSblog, which tracks Supreme Court news. In our Law Library print collection, you may want to check out “Oral Arguments Before the Supreme Court: An Empirical Approach” by Lawrence Wrightsman. This book has a chapter on justices’ questions and another on justice behavior during oral argument. Another book, “Majority Rule or Minority Will: Adherence to Precedent on the U.S. Supreme Court”, looks at voting and opinion behavior.
