With few exceptions, it’s remained true since 2005 that somewhere between one in four and one in five criminal cases at the California Supreme Court have at least one amicus brief. In 2005, 22.95% of the cases had one. That rose to 24.59% in 2009 and 24.68% in 2012. The percentage dropped off a bit
This week, we’re continuing our examination of the basic amicus brief filing data with the years 2005 through 2020. Although there was a one-year dip in 2004, for most of the period from 1997 to 2004, between eighty and ninety percent of all civil cases at the California Supreme Court had at least one amicus
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
[For the benefit of readers who don’t read both our Illinois and California blogs, the first paragraph immediately below is reprinted from our first post of this week on the Illinois Supreme Court Review.]
In the past twenty years, several academic researchers have extended the study of amicus briefs to state courts of
In 2010, Division Two of the Second District averaged six votes to affirm in cases not unanimously affirmed. Division Four of the Second averaged three votes and Division Four of the First and Division Three of the Second averaged two votes. In 2011, Division Three of the First District averaged six votes to affirm. Divisions
In 2010, one-third of civil decisions from Division Two of the Second District were affirmed unanimously. One-third of decisions from Division Two of the First and Division Three of the Second were. In 2011, half the decisions from Division Four of the First were affirmed unanimously, and one-third from Division One of the Second were.
This time, we’re reviewing the average votes to affirm among the Districts and Divisions of the Court of Appeal in cases not affirmed unanimously. In 2000, Division One of the First District and Division Two of the Second averaged 2.5 votes to affirm. In 2001, Division Five of the First District averaged six votes to
This time, we’re addressing the first of our two-question analysis of the Districts’ record at the Supreme Court in civil cases: how likely is it that each District (and Division) will be affirmed unanimously?
In 2000, one-third of the decisions reviewed from Division One of the First District were affirmed unanimously, while none of the
This time, we’re reviewing the average votes to affirm each District and Division of the Court of Appeal in non-unanimous cases.
In 1990, Division One of the First District averaged four votes to affirm. In 1991, Division Four of the First averaged six votes. In 1992, Division Three of the First and Division Four of
This week, we’re beginning a detailed analysis of the votes to affirm each Division and District of the Court of Appeal: (1) how often is each court affirmed unanimously; and (2) what was the average votes to affirm each Court, year by year?
In Table 1514, we report the first half of the Districts’ percentage