This time, we’re looking at amicus filings in California criminal cases.  Below, we chart the yearly percentage of criminal cases decided by the Supreme Court which drew at least one amicus brief.  The figure started low at only 12.5% in 1990.  It topped out at 32.76% in 1992, 48.78% in 1994 and 30.95% in 1996 before settling down, dropping below 15% in 2000 and 2001.  The share then increased to 22.54% in 2002, 20.63% in 2003 and 20.55% in 2004.

Appellants averaged only 0.16 briefs per case in 1990.  That rose to 0.42 in 1991 and 0.512 in 1994 before falling back again.  In 1996, appellants got an average of 0.33 briefs per case.  In 1997, that was 0.32.  After dropping for a few years, it rose to 0.37 in 2002, but then fell back again – 0.27 in 2003 and 0.19 in 2004.

The spread of briefs for respondents was also up and down during this fifteen-year period.  In 1990, respondents average 0.113 briefs per case.  That rose to 0.39 in 1994 and 0.3095 by 1996, but fell after that to 0.133 in 1998, 0.073 in 2000 and 0.069 in 2001.  There was a one-year jump in 2002 to 0.324 briefs per case, but the following year, it was back down to 0.11, and fell further to 0.068 in 2004.

Join us back here next week as we review the data for the years 2005 through 2020.

Image courtesy of Flickr by Ken Lund (no changes).