What Can We Infer When Justice Kilbride Asks The First Question In Criminal Cases?

Yesterday, we analyzed whether it's possible, based on all oral arguments in criminal cases between 2009 and 2016, to infer from watching Justice Kilbride's question patterns in criminal cases how he's voting, and whether he's writing an opinion. Today, we ask the same question based on whether or not Justice Kilbride asks the first question.

The short answer is Justice Kilbride virtually never leads off the Court's questions. When Justice Kilbride is in the majority of an affirmance in a criminal case, there's a 2.13% chance he'll ask the first question of appellants. He's never asked the first question of appellees in such cases. Writing has an impact; when he's writing the majority opinion in such cases, Justice Kilbride has asked the first question of appellants in 6.25% of cases. He hasn't asked the first question to either side in the three affirmances where he's written a special concurrence. In the affirmances where he hasn't written an opinion, Justice