Last week, we reviewed the data for how often each Justice of the Court voted with the majority in divided civil cases. This time, we’re on the flipside – how often did each Justice vote with the majority in divided criminal cases? First, we review the years 1990 to 2004.
Justice Arabian had a very
Which Justices of the California Supreme Court are most likely to be in the majority in civil cases which draw dissents? Or to put it in a more practice-driven way – if you’re expecting a contentious case, which Justices’ votes are the likeliest indication of how the majority might come out? Last time, we reviewed
We’ve shown several times, both on this blog and on our sister blog, the Illinois Supreme Court Review, that there are two key insights one can gain from oral argument: who is likely to win, and how each Justice is likely to vote.
Is it possible to refine the model further to where we
Last time, we reviewed the distribution of majority opinions in criminal cases among the Justices from 1990 to 2018. This time, we’re looking at the length of the Justices’ opinions – who wrote the longest and shortest majority opinions? Of course, the data here is strongly affected the Court’s death penalty opinions, where majority opinions
For the past few weeks, we’ve been looking at the distribution among the Justices of the Court’s majority opinions in civil cases and identifying which Justice each year wrote the longest and shortest opinions. Today, we’re looking at the data for the criminal docket.
In Table 753, we review the distribution of majority opinions between
Last time, we began our examination of the individual Justices’ writing habits with a review of how the majority opinions in civil cases were distributed from 1990 to 2018. Today, we’re looking at the average length of those opinions, Justice by Justice.
The real lesson we see in Table 749 is that although there are
For the past few weeks, we’ve been studying the average length of the Court’s opinions, looking for insights about the Court’s decision-making. This week, we’re starting a related topic: which individual Justice tends to write the longest and shortest majority opinions in civil cases? Today, step one – we trace how many majority opinions each
We’ve established already that majority opinions in cases reversing the Court of Appeal are, on average, generally longer than majority opinions affirming. Last time, we showed that for criminal cases between 1990 and 2003, the result was flipped – affirmances were nearly always longer. Today, we’re reviewing the data for the years 2004 to 2018.
Last time, we asked whether majority opinions in civil cases, on average, tend to be longer when the Court reverses than when it affirms. The answer was, in the vast majority of cases, yes. Today and tomorrow, we’re asking the same question in criminal cases. Surprisingly, the answer for criminal cases is the reverse –
Last time, we compared the length of majority opinions at the Court in civil cases for reversals and affirmances between 1990 and 2003. In this post, we’re looking at the years 2004 through 2018.
Between 2004 and 2010, in five of seven years reversals averaged longer majority opinions than affirmances. In 2004, reversals averaged 24.39