Study suggests Chief Justice John Roberts was quicker to cut off his female colleagues during Supreme Court phone arguments
A new study found that the Supreme Court's female justices were cut off more quickly than their male colleagues by Chief Justice John Roberts during oral arguments made over the phone last week because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The study's author, Prof. Leah Litman, a legal scholar from the University of Michigan, found that all three of the longest periods of question were from male justices, as were nine of the 12 longest. In contrast, three of the shortest questioning periods ended by Roberts — who was single-handedly policing time allotments due to the restructured argument model — were from female justices, as were eight of the 12 shortest, even though women only comprise 33 percent of the seats on the bench.
On an individual level, Justice Sonia Sotomayor had her questioning ended the most frequently by Roberts; her longest stretch was only the 10th longest overall.
Litman acknowledges this isn't surprising given that previous studies have suggested women justices are interrupted more frequently under normal circumstances, though she did say that Roberts' speed may also be related to where he personally was leaning on a case. Read the full study here.
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