What Are Justice Corrigan's Question Patterns When She Disagrees With The Majority In Civil Cases?

For the last two weeks, we've been looking at the Supreme Court's question patterns at a court-wide level. We reviewed the academic literature studying oral argument questions at the U.S. Supreme Court, which has concluded that the party which will lose averages the most questions. We then reviewed the year-by-year data at the California Supreme Court to look for similar patterns.

Now, we're beginning to review the data one Justice at a time. Does each individual Justice match the usual pattern - more questions to the loser - when he or she agrees with the majority? What about when she or he doesn't agree with the majority - does she more heavily question the party which will lose the case, or the party she thinks should lose the case? We divide the case data by every possible combination of court result and a Justice's vote - affirmances, reversals and split decisions ("affirmed in part, reversed in part").