How the Court Writes
Loading…
Opinions have more than doubled in length
Median words in the opinion of the Court, by term.
Reading level
Median Flesch–Kincaid grade of the majority opinion, by term. Higher = harder to read.
How often the Court splinters
Average number of separate opinions (concurrences + dissents) per decision, by term.
Citation density
Median reporter citations (U.S., S. Ct., L. Ed., F.) per 1,000 words of majority opinion, by term.
Writing style by justice
Every justice with 40+ opinions of the Court in this corpus. Reading ease runs 0–100 (higher = plainer prose); grade is school years of education assumed.
| Justice | Opinions | Median words | Reading ease | Grade | Cites/1k words |
|---|
Most separate opinions written
Concurrences and dissents, attributed from the opinion text itself.
| Justice | Dissents | Concurrences | Total |
|---|
Longest opinions of the Court
Majority opinions by word count.
| Case | Term | Words |
|---|