I compiled the SG’s win-loss record during OT08 in four different scenarios: When it took part in a case as Petitioner, when it took part as Respondent, when it joined and argued a case in support of the petitioner, and when it joined and argued a case in support of the respondent. You can find [...]

This weekend, I went through all the oral argument transcripts from OT00 through OTO8 and I counted how many times each of the major advocates has argued before the Supreme Court. I know that I’ve got all of the big advocates (10+ arguments), but I might be missing a few of the advocates with less. [...]

My goal was to publish the final term statistics today, but because the Court will hear rearguments in Citzens United and likely issue an opinion before the beginning of OT09, I’ll have to update these statistics again in September.
I’ve updated the 2008 Term Case Index, which you can always find at the top of the [...]

I’ve compiled a really interesting list featuring the win-loss record of every advocate from the SG’s office and all of the top private advocates. The list is necessarily incomplete but I wanted to give everyone sample of it before I publish the final version tomorrow afternoon when the remaining cases come out.
You can [...]

The Supreme Court released four divided opinions today including a very interesting case rejecting an inmate’s right to test the DNA used to convict him more than 15 years ago.
Justice Thomas was the author of another 5-4 decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Services. For some reason, I had always assumed that he filed a [...]

I’ve updated the Term Case Index to reflect the four opinions handed down this week. Earlier today I released opinion authorship statistics sorted by month. You can find the Term Index here and the authorship data here.

With 43 opinions released, the Court has now released just over half of the opinions it will release for the term. Lets take a look at some of the statistics.
Number of Opinions: 43 cases
Per Curiam: 7 cases (16%)
9-0: 19 cases (44%)
8-1: 1 case (2%)
7-2: 4 cases (9%)
6-3: 5 cases (12%)
5-4: 7 cases (16%)
I read this [...]

One can only hope that Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) horded the tasteless Intrade contract for “Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Be Next Justice to Depart US Supreme Court,” looking to cash in on his classy prediction that the Justice would be dead in nine months.
I think everyone-except Bunning, that is–breathed a collective sigh of relief [...]

With the release of several opinions this week, the Court has now released 26 opinions for the term. Its time to take a look at some of the numbers:
Opinions released: 26
Cases dismissed: 21
Oldest Case: Vanden v. Discover Bank, argued October 6, 2008 (141 day ago)
Average number of days between arguments and decision: 78.31
Cases dismissed at [...]

I’ve updated a lot of the information on the Term Case Index in preparation for today’s cases. I expect the Supreme Court to hand down 1-2 opinions on merit this morning but its hard to say which ones specifically. My guess: Gall for sure and maybe Kimbrough.
Regardless, the opinions that we get today will be [...]