Appellate Law

Justice Roberts' oral argument preparation

By Kimberly A. Kralowec

I'm reading Supreme Conflict: The Inside Story of the Struggle for Control of the United States Supreme Court (The Penguin Press 2007) by Jan Crawford Greenburg. On pp. 188-189, there is a kernel of insight into how United States Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. used to prepare for oral arguments when he was a practitioner:

Roberts's arguments had a crackle that most others lacked, even among top Supreme Court advocates. He would spend more than a month preparing, jotting down hundreds of possible questions in a notebook and practicing his responses aloud in his home or car or office. For one case, Roberts came up with more than five hundred questions, and if he stumbled over a word while practicing his response, he would change it to another. During his arguments in court, the justices were quick to engage him, peppering him with questions and then eagerly awaiting his response. For lesser advocates, the justices are more inclined to sit silently. They're not as interested in what the lawyer has to say, so they lean back in their chairs and let him speak without interruption. That is not what a John Roberts argument was like.

The book says that "[b]efore he left the practice of law in 2003, [Justice Roberts] had argued thirty-nine cases before the high court -- a remarkable number for an institution that hears only eighty or so a year." Id. at 186-87.

Full post as published by The Appellate Practitioner on January 21, 2008 (boomark / email).