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Last week, we demonstrated that the time from grant to oral argument and argument to decision was longer between 2000 and 2007 for affirmances than it was for reversals, both in civil and criminal cases.  This week, we look at the Court’s civil and criminal cases between 2008 and 2016.  We begin with the Court’s civil docket.

Our civil case database includes 104 affirmances and 179 reversals.  From grant of review to argument, the Court averaged 624.9712 days in affirmances, and 589.5556 days in reversals – so about five weeks more for affirmances.  The lag time data was widely scattered; the standard deviation for affirmances was 263.4742 days, and the standard deviation for reversals was 249.5901 days.

Table 179

In Table 180 below, we report the data for reversals in civil cases.  Once again, affirmances took longer, although the difference was very slight.  Affirmances averaged 70.1731 days from argument to decision.  Reversals averaged 69.55 days.  The standard deviation for affirmances from argument to decision was 16.98101 days, while the standard deviation for reversals was 23.60962.

Table 180

Join us back here tomorrow as analyze the Court’s criminal cases from 2008 through 2016.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Damian Gadal (no changes).