Sotomayor Asks 11.2 Questions Per Argument, Outpacing Roberts in 2005
The court’s newest justice isn’t shy or apologetic in her questioning of lawyers during U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments.
During the court’s second two-week cycle of arguments, Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked an average of 11.2 questions per argument, more than Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. at the same point in his tenure, the National Law Journal reports.
Roberts asked an average of 10 questions per argument in the second argument cycle in 2005, while Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. averaged only 3.5 per questions per argument at a comparable point in 2006.
“As Sotomayor wraps up her second full argument cycle as a Supreme Court justice, it has become clear that she is a prolific and fearless questioner,” the story says. “She can be tenacious and direct, bordering on harsh. She can be impatient when the lawyer does not answer her question precisely. She knows her stuff and clearly loves the give and take.
“All of which is to say, Sotomayor fits right in with her new colleagues, many of whom do exactly the same thing.”
The story gives some examples. In an exchange with Bryan Stevenson, Sotomayor asked the noted lawyer to interpret an earlier ruling. Sotomayor didn’t like the answer. “No, that’s an unfair characterization,” she said. In different arguments she told one lawyer that part of an argument was “meaningless,” and told another, “That’s not true.”
