Yesterday, we looked at which Justices have filed the most concurrences, year by year, in civil cases since 2008.  Today, we turn our attention to the criminal side of the docket.

Despite having not joined the Court until the fall of 2011, there’s no question that Justice Liu files the most concurrences in criminal cases.  Justice Werdegar is next, followed by Justice Kennard.

For 2008, Justice Kennard wrote four concurrences in criminal cases.  Justices Werdegar, Baxter and Moreno wrote three, Justice Chin two and Justice Corrigan one.  For 2009, Justices Kennard, Werdegar and Moreno wrote two concurrences apiece, and Justice Chin wrote one.  For 2010, Justice Werdegar wrote four concurrences, Justices Kennard and Moreno wrote three and Justice Baxter wrote two.  For 2011, Justices Kennard and Werdegar led with four concurrences each.  Justice Liu wrote two and Justices Baxter and Chin wrote one apiece.

In 2012, Justice Liu filed ten concurrences in criminal cases.  Justice Werdegar was next with eight.  Justice Kennard was next with two, and Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye and Justices Corrigan, Chin and Baxter wrote one apiece.  In 2013, Justice Liu once again led, filing eight concurrences in civil cases.  Justice Baxter was next with four, Justice Kennard wrote three, Justices Werdegar and Chin wrote two each, and Justice Corrigan wrote one.  In 2014, Justice Liu was the only Justice who wrote more than one concurrence in criminal cases – he wrote nine.  Justices Corrigan, Werdegar and Chin wrote one each.  In 2015, Justice Liu was the only Justice to file a concurrence in a criminal case, writing three.

In Table 141 below, we report the mean length of each Justice’s concurrences.  It’s not clear that any Justice tended to write longer concurrences than the others year after year.  In 2008, Justices Corrigan and Baxter averaged six pages apiece.  Justice Moreno averaged five pages, Justice Kennard 2.75 pages, Justice Werdegar 2.33 pages, and Justice Chin averaged two pages.  In 2009, Justice Kennard led, averaging 4.5 pages.  Justice Moreno averaged 3.5 pages, Justice Werdegar averaged three, and Justice Chin averaged 1 page per concurrence.  In 2010, Justice Baxter averaged the longest concurrences, averaging six pages.  Justice Werdegar averaged four pages, Justice Moreno 3.33 pages and Justice Kennard two.  In 2011, Justice Baxter once again led, averaging seven pages.  Justice Liu averaged 6.5 pages, Justice Kennard 4.25 pages, Justice Werdegar 2.5 pages and Justice Chin 1 page.  In 2012, Chief Justice Cantil-Sakauye led, writing a single ten-page concurrence.  Justice Chin averaged eight pages.  Justice Werdegar’s average concurrence was 6.88 pages.  Justice Corrigan averaged five pages, Justice Liu averaged 4.2 pages, Justice Baxter three and Justice Kennard two pages.

In 2013, Justice Liu led, averaging 14.13 pages per concurrence. Justice Kennard was next at 7.33 pages.  Justice Corrigan averaged six pages, Justice Werdegar 5.5 pages, Justice Baxter 2.75 pages and Justice Chin averaged two.  In 2014, Justice Liu once again led, averaging 4.44 pages per concurrence.  Justice Corrigan averaged four pages, and Justices Werdegar and Chin averaged two pages apiece.  In 2015, Justice Liu averaged seven pages per concurrence.

Join us back here next Thursday as we turn our attention to a new area of analysis.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Jill Clardy (no changes).