Justice Ginsburg admitted earlier this week at a talk at SMU that she doesn’t read most amicus briefs. [A link to an article about her talk is here.] Here is an excerpt of the article reporting on the discussion:
To prepare for oral arguments in all cases, Ginsburg said she reads all the prior opinions and part of the record before opening the lawyers’ briefs. She follows that order so she may spot inaccuracies in the briefs. “Lawyers should know, if they try to distort the record, they will be found out,” she said. Writers of amicus briefs face other concerns: “I have to confess, I don’t read all of those. In fact, I don’t read most of them,” Ginsburg said.
The possibility that Supreme Court Justices don’t read amicus briefs, or only read a few of them, is not new. In fact, the Tribal Supreme Court Project’s greatest successes so far have been in limiting the number of redundant amicus briefs filed in the Court, and negotiating strategies for targeted, careful amicus briefs.
What is new, a little bit, is the admission from one of the Justices. Our question is this: Will there be an impact on the market for amicus briefs? Right now, just about every Supreme Court practitioner shop in D.C. has clients willing to shell out dough for amicus briefs. Will that market start to dry up, even just a little bit?
Regardless, this information is sobering.
Turtle Talk 