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So I'll preface this by saying I've never heard supreme court oral arguments before, so i don't know how they "normally" work, but yesterday I listened in on th

So I'll preface this by saying I've never heard supreme court oral arguments before, so i don't know how they "normally" work, but yesterday I listened in on the first streamed oral arguments, and this change stuck out to me too. Several times the counsel was kind of interrupted to move the questions on to the next justice in line, and the rate at which they moved through them seemed extremely fast compared to what I expected. This is the highest court in the country, adding what feel like artificial time restrictions into the ability for the counsel to properly explain their reasoning and points seems like a really bad idea. (obviously within reason, you shouldn't have a lawyer that can talk for 20 hours to delay a case, but it seemed like during the "United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Booking.com B.V." part they were moving from justice to justice in what felt like under a minute or 2, cutting the counsel off every time.) Again, I'm far from an expert here, so can any actual experts (or people with more knowledge of this world) offer some clarity on if this is "normal", and perhaps why it's like this?

TheCoelacanth 6y ago
They get to argue their case extensively in written form. The oral arguments are really for the justices to get to ask questions. Even before this change, there were very tight time limits on lawyers for oral arguments. There are also far, far more cases asking to be heard by the Supreme Court than they can actually hear, so they need to keep the time limits short.
jcranmer 6y ago
Normal procedure is an hour of oral argument, with each side allocated 30 minutes (the side that goes first has 5 of its minutes (or more, if the attorney declines to use all the time first) shifted after the second side, for use as a rebuttal period). Sometimes, the Solicitor General is also asked to speak during oral argument, which gives each party 20 minutes to speak.

TheCoelacanth 6y ago

They get to argue their case extensively in written form. The oral arguments are really for the justices to get to ask questions. Even before this change, there were very tight time limits on lawyers for oral arguments. There are also far, far more cases asking to be heard by the Supreme Court than they can actually hear, so they need to keep the time limits short.

jcranmer 6y ago

Normal procedure is an hour of oral argument, with each side allocated 30 minutes (the side that goes first has 5 of its minutes (or more, if the attorney declines to use all the time first) shifted after the second side, for use as a rebuttal period). Sometimes, the Solicitor General is also asked to speak during oral argument, which gives each party 20 minutes to speak.