Frequency of Consecutive Opinions Release Days
1 Comment Published by Kedar S. Bhatia February 28th, 2011 in Court Procedure, Statistics, Supreme CourtI’ve taken a look at the number of opinion days in a given week from OT06 to OT10. In other words, I’ve taken a look at the number of times the Court has released opinions on one day during the week, on two days during the week, or on three (presumably consecutive) days during the week.
| Term | one day | two days | three days |
| OT06 | 16 | 6 | 0 |
| OT07 | 13 | 13 | 0 |
| OT08 | 11 | 14 | 0 |
| OT09 | 11 | 16 | 2 |
| OT10 | 6 | 2 | 0 |
Both instances of a three-opinion-day week, January 10-12, 2010 and February 21-23, 2010, featured summary reversals on Monday and signed opinions on Tuesday and Thursday. I’ve also counted the total number of opinion days during a given term:
| Term | opinion days |
| OT06 | 29 |
| OT07 | 31 |
| OT08 | 32 |
| OT09 | 35 |
| OT10 | 8 |
For the record, the last stage of an opinion leads it through the reporter’s office and the Court likely doesn’t control the specific release of opinions. The main exception to that rule is the Court’s propensity to holding particularly derisive opinions until the end of the term.
I’m still not sure why opinions are sometimes released on consecutive days, but my guess is that it has something to do with the flow of opinions after they leave individual chambers and enter the uniform editing process.



What an interesting analysis Kendar and certainly something I would have never considered on my own. If you ever figure out why opinions are sometimes released on consecutive days, please post, might be interesting. Thanks.