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

A few weeks ago, we established that court-wide, the party which is likely to lose tends to get the most questions in oral argument. Now, we're investigating individual Justices' records - when the Justice agrees with the majority, does he or she follow the usual pattern, and when he or she doesn't agree, does the Justice more heavily question that party that will lose, or the party he or she thinks should lose? This time, we're looking at Justice Kilbride's history - first up, civil cases.

In civil affirmances where Justice Kilbride is with the majority, Justice Kilbride more heavily questions the losing appellant than the winning appellee - 1.11 to 0.76. When Justice Kilbride joins the majority in a civil reversal, his numbers are close to even - 1.22 questions to appellees, 1.12 to appellants. When Justice Kilbride joins the majority in a split decision - "affirmed in part, reversed in part" - he averages 1.18 questions to appellees and 0.98 to appellants.