It may seem like the 2022 Supreme Court Term just concluded, as the justices initiated this term reminiscent of their June 2023 departure. The 2023 Term October argument session is now complete, and the justices have heard six oral arguments. The trend continues with Justice Jackson leading in terms of word counts during the arguments. This observation isn’t unique to this term, as Justice Jackson has been exceeding the rest of the justices in the quantity of oral argument speech for her entire second term tenure. This poses an intriguing query: Are the word counts a factor of importance? Comprehensive records of a justice’s oral argument speech can certainly shed some light on this.
Before the oral argument time, the justices and their clerks have familiarised themselves with case briefs and lower court transcripts. Speaking more at an oral argument can help clarify any outstanding issues, increase self-confidence, and enable the justices to understand the implications of their decision. This is one side of the coin – strategic speech. However, their speech consumes the permissible time, leaving other justices silent, at least for the time being mostly.
There are many consequences tied to the oral argument engagement of the justices. The justices not only learn more about the lawyers’ arguments but they also get an insight into their fellow justices’ stances. This new information can be crucial at times.
Despite the individual time allowed to each judge by the new oral argument format, oral argument time is a scarce resource. Justices often base their involvement in an argument on their need for information and interest in the subject matter. However, certain aspects, such as the trend of Justice Jackson generally speaking the most, remain consistent across arguments.
That said, the data suggests that Justice Jackson is considerably ahead in terms of cumulative word counts this term, even a complete argument’s worth of speech ahead of any other justice, such as Justice Kagan who has spoken the second-most. To put her linguistic command into perspective, she led five out of six arguments this term with Justice Kavanaugh leading in the Great Lakes Insurance case.
The assistance with this task was provided by Jake Truscott. For any queries about this article, please contact Adam Feldman at adam@feldmannet.com.