Yesterday, we reviewed the data on Justice Burke's question
patterns in criminal cases. Today, we ask a related question: if
Justice Burke asks the first question, can we infer that she is
likely writing an opinion?
Writing the majority opinion has some impact on the likelihood
that Justice Burke will ask the first question. In affirmances
where Justice Burke is in the majority, she asks the first question
of appellants 16.03% of the time, and of appellees, 12.21%. When
she's writing the majority opinion, she leads off with
appellants 23.08% of the time, and with appellees 15.38%.
Concurrences – always a small data set – have a slight
impact on Justice Burke's questioning of appellees, but little
to none of appellants. Overall, when Justice Burke isn't
writing an opinion (and she's voting with the majority),
there's a 15.65% chance she'll begin the questioning of
appellants in affirmances, 11.3% of appellees, 11.67% of appellants
in reversals, 9.17% of appellees.
