Here is the final Term Index for October Term 2009. OT09_term_index_final

Term Index Vote Breakdown Vote Breakdown Stats — You can see from the Term Index that Justice Stevens is the most likely author of the majority opinion in Bilski.

Starting this week, I’ll be posting my updated charts on SCOTUSblog. You can find the first SB version of my charts here. More specifically: Case ListCondensed Case List (formerly the Term Index)Vote BreakdownVote Breakdown Data

I’ve updated the Term Statistics to reflect this week’s opinions. Complete — Term Index Opinion Breakdown Vote Breakdown

I’m sad to see Justice Stevens leave the Court for a variety of reasons that have been well documented by people smarter than me. I’m also excited to some change on the Court because the liberal wing needs a change of pace after it’s dismal performance thus far in OT09. The biggest problem, at least [...]

I’ve updated the term statistics and you can find the new versions of each chart below: Complete (includes all three charts) — Term Index Opinion Breakdown Vote Breakdown

I’ve finally finished the first edition of my OT09 statistics. First, the links: Term Index and Term Opinion Breakdown. Honestly, the names don’t mean much and last year I called the same charts “Term_Index” and “Term_Index_2,” respectively. The Term Index lists each case by the sitting in which it was heard. For each case, you [...]

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 [...]

When Chief Justice Roberts first sat on the Court on October 3, 2005 in IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez, he spoke twenty-four times and his first question appeared on page 15 of the transcript. Following that question, he went back and forth with Carter Phillips, a man with whom the Chief Justice was already acquainted, for [...]