What’s been the biggest surprise for you so far this term?
Two things:
The interaction among the justices during the lethal injection oral arguments was as tendentious as I’ve ever seen. There was such infighting that Roberts granted the advocates additional time to make their arguments without interruption. The court spends an outsized portion of its time on death penalty cases, and there is clearly some bad blood between the justices.
The other is that Roberts wrote the court’s opinion (Williams-Yulee v. Florida Bar) upholding a Florida prohibition on judicial candidates personally asking for campaign contributions. Just about every question and comment he made during oral arguments pointed in the other direction. It is a good reminder that those sessions are not always predictive.