{"id":2286,"date":"2008-02-26T01:16:22","date_gmt":"2008-02-26T06:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wordpress\/2008\/02\/silence_on_the\/"},"modified":"2008-02-26T01:16:22","modified_gmt":"2008-02-26T06:16:22","slug":"silence_on_the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2008\/02\/silence_on_the\/","title":{"rendered":"Silence On The Bench"},"content":{"rendered":"

I knew Justice Clarence Thomas generally kept quite during oral arguments at the Supreme Court, but I wasn’t aware that he took it to this extreme<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Two years and 142 cases have passed since Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas last spoke up at oral arguments. It is a period of unbroken silence that contrasts with the rest of the court’s unceasing inquiries.
\n. . .
\nThe last time Thomas asked a question in court was February 22, 2006, in a death penalty case out of South Carolina.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article cites this comment by Thomas as an explanation as to why he doesn’t engage the parties during oral arguments:<\/p>\n

“One thing I’ve demonstrated often in 16 years is you can do this job without asking a single question,” he told an adoring crowd at the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s worth noting that “doing a job” isn’t necessarily the same thing as “doing a good job.”
\nPeople have different views on the purpose of oral arguments, and consequently there’s no rule on how judges should use (or not use) that part of the appellate process.
\nDoes Justice Thomas’ behavior on the bench reflect a lack of intellectual curiosity? It’s easy to conclude that, though to be fair one shouldn’t make that judgment without knowing what goes on behind the scenes in closed chambers.
\nAt any rate one would think that Thomas would mix in a question every once in a while, if for no other reason than to relieve the monotony of the court sessions. His conduct is odd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I knew Justice Clarence Thomas generally kept quite during oral arguments at the Supreme Court, but I wasn’t aware that he took it to this extreme: Two years and 142 cases have passed since Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas last spoke up at oral arguments. It is a period of unbroken silence that contrasts with […]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"h-entry","8":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2286\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}