Oral Arguments and Decision Making on the United States Supreme Court (American Constitutionalism)

193 Pages·2004·1.07 MB·English

by  Timothy R. Johnson

Oral Arguments and Decision Making
on the United States Supreme Court
SUNY series in American Constitutionalism
Robert J.Spitzer,editor
Oral Arguments
and Decision Making
on the
United States Supreme Court
Timothy R.Johnson
State University of New York Press
Cover photo:Franz Jantzen,Collection of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Published by
State University of New York Press,Albany
© 2004 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Johnson,Timothy Russell.
Oral arguments and decision making on the United States Supreme Court /
Timothy R.Johnson
p.cm.— (SUNY series in American Constitutionalism)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-7914-6103-3 (hardcopy : alk paper)
1. United States.Supreme Court—Rules and practice. 2. Forensic orations—
United States. 3. Judgments—United States. 4. Judicial process—United
States. I. Title. II. Series.
KF8742.J64 2004
347.73'2651—dc22
2003059535
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Julie,Alexi,and Aidan

Contents
Tables ix
Acknowledgments xi
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Chapter 2: Oral Arguments as an Information-Gathering Tool 21
Chapter 3: Oral Arguments and Coalition Formation 57
Chapter 4: Conference,Opinion Writing,and Oral Arguments 71
Chapter 5: Oral Arguments and Decisions on the Merits 93
Chapter 6: Conclusions and Implications 125
Appendix 1: Data Selection 133
Appendix 2: Data Reliability 137
Appendix 3: Example of Justice Powell’s Oral Argument Notes
from Chapter 3 139
Notes 141
References 157
Cases Cited or in the Sample 167
Index 171
vii

Tables
Table 2.1 Issue Types Used to Code Litigant Briefs,AmicusBriefs,
and Oral Argument Transcripts 33
Table 2.2 Issue Areas Supporting Hypothesized Court Focus 34
Table 2.3 Types of Information Provided to the Supreme Court
in Litigant and AmicusBriefs 37
Table 2.4 The Focus of the Court’s Questions during Oral
Arguments by Issue Area and Source of Information 40
Table 2.5 Individual Justice’s Behavior during Oral Arguments 53
Table 3.1 Variables Affecting Justice Powell’s Decision to Note
his Colleagues’Questions and Comments during
Oral Arguments 63
Table 3.2 Negative Binomial Regression Estimates of Justice
Powell’s Decision to Note his Colleagues’Questions
and Comments during Oral Arguments 65
Table 3.3 Logit Estimates of the Propensity for Justice Powell
and Colleague to Join the Same Coalition 68
Table 4.1 The Origin of Information Discussed by the Supreme
Court during Conference Discussions 78
Table 4.2 References to Orally Argued Issues by Individual
Justices during Conference Discussions 80
Table 4.3 References to Policy during Supreme Court
Conference Discussions 82
Table 4.4 References to External Actors during Supreme Court
Conference Discussions 86
ix