Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Do Justices Tip Their Hands with Questions at Oral Argument in the U.S. Supreme Court?

Abstract

Part I of this Essay focuses on what Justices and scholars have written and said about oral arguments generally and the role these proceedings play in the Court’s decision-making process. Part II examines the few existing studies that address the question posed here. Part III lays out the data used to test this hypothesis; Part IV presents the methodology; and Part V discusses the results.