longest US Supreme Court opinion

[Douglas Laycock]

  This is likely because you know what you're doing and have
confidence in your judgment about what is more important and what is
less important.  The clerks don't know what they're doing yet and
don't have that kind of confidence, so extra time does not yield
concision; it yields elaboration and responses to marginal arguments.

  Quoting Samuel Bagenstos <srbagenstos at wulaw.wustl.edu>:

> 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/[1]
>
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>
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>

Douglas Laycock
University of Michigan Law School
625 S. State St.
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1215
  734-647-9713

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