Using the still-fabulous Supreme Court Compendium data set, I’ve thrown together a chart plotting the ages of each Justice at retirement. I didn’t have to make many judgment calls and the data really speaks for itself. You can click on the image for a larger view. Enjoy! Ages at retirement (.pdf)

I’ve compiled the oral argument audio from this week into one easy-to-download .zip file. You can get the file here. The file includes audio from oral arguments in: Ransom v. FIA Card Services, N.A. Abbott v. United States NASA v. Bryant Michigan v. Bryant Los Angeles County v. Humphries Snyder v. Phelps Connick v. Thompson [...]

For one reason or another, it looks like I forgot to post my updated advocate scorecard for the decade at the end of the last term. Originally published in 2009, it shows the number of times that notable advocates have argued in the last decade, beginning in October 2000 and ending April 2010. If you [...]

In addition to the orders from its long conference, the Court released new circuit assignments. Circuit Justice DC Chief Justice Roberts Fed. Chief Justice Roberts First Justice Breyer Second Justice Ginsburg Third Justice Alito Forth Chief Justice Roberts Fifth Justice Scalia Sixth Justice Kagan Seventh Justice Kagan Eigth Justice Alito Ninth Justice Kennedy Tenth Justice [...]

Updated Most of you know that the Court hears cases during two-week sessions every month from October to April. During most sessions, the Court will hear 8-12 cases and majority opinion assignments are distributed equally for each session. In other words, if there are nine cases for the October session, each justice will write one [...]

After the Court released its opinion in Perdue v. Kenny A. yesterday, there was only one case left from the October sitting: Salazar v. Buono. The only justice who hasn’t written a majority opinion from October is Justice Kennedy. Barring an incredibly surprising turn of events, Justice Kennedy will be writing the majority opinion in [...]

The Court has been criticized for releasing only four opinion going into the winter break and Linda Greenhouse even suggested that internal wrangling over Citizens United may have “sucked the air out of the term.” Maybe so, but the Court has done nothing publicly to suggest that this term is progressing differently from any other. [...]

The Supreme Court handed down only orders this morning, meaning the next possible time for it to release an opinion in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission is early next year. Several commentators, most notably John Elwood on Volokh Conspiracy and Tony Mauro for the Legal Times, have considered the possible reasons and consequences of [...]

The Court sat for its traditional “class photo” yesterday, to the apparent amusement of less than half the members of the current Court. You can also find a video taken at the loosely termed “photo shoot” here. I should note that the Court released a few different photos from the shoot and in all of [...]

Well, I made a mistake yesterday. Relying on the WSJ Law Blog’s onsite observer, I reported that General Kagan had worn a blue pants suit. I was wrong. In fact, the Washington Post and Above the Law are now reporting that General Kagan chose a black suit with a light blue blouse with which to [...]