Adam Feldman takes a look at “The Changing Face of Supreme Court Oral Arguments” at his Legalytics Substack. The whole article is interesting and worth reading. Here are his takeaways:
· Oral arguments are taking longer and there is no evidence that this will change soon.
· Attorneys are speaking more on the balance (than the justices) since the 2014 Term but this ratio is about on par with where it was in 2010
· Even if 2020 was an outlier term due to Covid-19, justices’ interruptions of attorneys are way up since pre-Covid years although they’ve shown a slight decrease over the past few terms.
· Justice Gorsuch and Kagan are both speaking more and are jumping in more frequently while attorneys are speaking. Although there are changes in the other justices’ behavior these two show the most prominent changes.