longest US Supreme Court opinion

[Samuel Bagenstos]

I would think that armies of clerks and librarians and computers would help the justices write less and less.  It's certainly been my experience that the more time I have, the more concise is my work.  And when I've written briefs with other lawyers who did the first drafts, I've had a much easier time keeping them concise.

________________________________

From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu on behalf of Paul Finkelman
Sent: Fri 9/8/2006 12:17 PM
To: conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu; s-gerber at onu.edu; mfranck at radford.edu
Subject: RE: longest US Supreme Court opinion



I am not at my office, but I am pretty sure that there is a 19th century
case (patent perhaps) that takes up an ENTIRE VOLUME of US Reports; I do
not remember how much was argument and how much was opinion. 

We should also think about the historical difference between Dred Scott
-- no law clerks, no typewriters, no lexis or westlaw  and a much
heavier docket than today's court (I believe) -- and today's world with
armies of clerks and librarians and computers to help the justices write
more and more and more.   The massive number of opinions by Taney and
Marshall are truly impressive.

Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
     and Public Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, New York   12208-3494

518-445-3386
pfink at albanylaw.edu
>>> "Franck, Matthew J" <mfranck at radford.edu> 09/08/06 8:02 AM >>>
Scott,



A page count on HeinOnline shows McConnell to be 273 pages (counting
syllabus), while Furman was only 233.  But Buckley v. Valeo comes in at
294.  Typesetting practices change, though.  Are there more words on the
modern page than there were in 1857, when Dred Scott weighed in at 241
pages?



Matt

***************************

Matthew J. Franck

Professor and Chairman

Department of Political Science

Radford University

P.O. Box 6945

Radford, VA 24142-6945

phone 540-831-5854

fax 540-831-6075

e-mail mfranck at radford.edu

www.radford.edu/mfranck

***************************



-----Original Message-----
From: conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu
[mailto:conlawprof-bounces at lists.ucla.edu] On Behalf Of Scott Gerber
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2006 6:42 AM
To: conlawprof at lists.ucla.edu
Subject: longest US Supreme Court opinion



Dear Colleagues:



A criminal law professor friend of mine asked me if Furman v. Georgia

is still the longest Supreme Court decision ever issued (in total

pages, counting all the opinions).  Is it, or have, say, the campaign

finance decisions been longer?



Thank you,

Scott



--------------------------------------



Scott Gerber

Law College

Ohio Northern University

Ada, OH 45810

419-772-2219

http://www.law.onu.edu/faculty/gerber/

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