How do Supreme Court oral arguments work?
About this video
In a classic Supreme Court oral argument, each side gets only half an hour, and the justices, who have already read the briefs, fire off many questions. They often ask hypothetical questions about the implications of a ruling, because the Supreme Court is less a dispute resolver than a 'law provider' whose decisions bind future cases.
You'll be able to
- describe how a Supreme Court oral argument works.
- explain why justices ask hypothetical questions.
- explain what it means that the Supreme Court is a 'law provider'.
Key words
- Oral argument
- The time when lawyers speak to the justices and answer their questions in court.
- Brief
- A written argument submitted to the court before the hearing.
- Hypothetical
- An imagined situation with changed facts, used to test an idea.
- Binding
- Must be followed by lower courts in future cases.
Transcript
The classic oral argument gives only half an hour to each side. The court makes it clear in the advice that it puts out to lawyers. It's posted on the Court's website. It's quite interesting. It's called Guide for Counsel. They don't want to hear a rehash of the briefs.
They've read the briefs. They want the lawyer to just plunge right in, and they will plunge right in with lots of questions. Sometimes in half an hour, there'll be 50 questions, so the lawyer arguing has to be very quick on his or her feet. It calls on skill sets that most lawyers don't have.
Most courts are not as active as the Supreme Court is. This is what the court is looking for. They ask the lawyer not so much about, what happened to your client, and what's your problem? It's, what are the implications? They devise these hypothetical questions. Let's just change the facts a little bit because we have to worry about, if we decide it your way. If we buy what you're selling, what are we buying that we have to apply to the next case and the case after that? The Supreme Court isn't so much a dispute resolution provider. It's a law provider. It's going to provide law that future cases in the lower courts are going to be bound by or might expect to be bound by. That's how the argument proceeds.
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