Opinions Expected Tomorrow at 10 am

According to the Court’s official opinion line, tomorrow will see the release of one or more decisions from the Supreme Court. If, as is widely expected, at least one of the decisions is a signed opinion disposing of an argued case, it will be the Court’s first this term (for the Court’s two per curiam opinions so far, see here).

We previously discussed the Court’s usual practice regarding the release of opinions early in the term here. An additional piece of Supreme Court trivia is that, when the first signed opinion is released this term, it will be the latest first opinion from an argued case since OT84, when Warren Burger was Chief Justice. That year, the term’s first opinion came in U.S. v. 50 Acres of Land, which was also released on December 4 (like this year’s, the 1984 Term began on October 1). Its author was associate justice John Paul Stevens, who was the only member of that Court still on the bench.

Perhaps the relatively long wait for opinions over the past few terms is due to the retirement of Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. An opinion penned by Justice O’Connor was first out of the gate (or tied for first) a remarkable 12 times in her 25 Terms on the bench. (In 2003, Marty Lederman listed the authors and release dates of the first opinions going back to OT81; see here.)

We will post the opinions as soon as they are available tomorrow.