Update to court's 2009 case statistics
We've updated the case-by-case spreadsheet for the Supreme Court's 2009 opinions to include the number of days between argument and the court's opinion. The rule of thumb is the court takes about six months to issue a decision after hearing arguments.
On average, the court took 223 days (31 weeks) to issue opinions in the cases where arguments were heard. Fifteen decisions in 2009 were pending for over a year, while 20 cases were disposed of in less than three months. One case, State v. Wright, which dealt with double jeopardy, sat for 674 days (96 weeks) before being resolved.
UPDATE: More numbers inspired by the comments below. Here is the average time from argument to decision based on who authored the majority opinion.
| 138 days | Chambers |
| 176 days | Owens |
| 207 days | C. Johnson |
| 210 days | Fairhurst |
| 221 days | Sanders |
| 223 days | Court average |
| 254 days | Stephens |
| 267 days | J. Johnson |
| 279 days | Alexander |
| 281 days | Madsen |
Also, the average wait based on the case's vote split.
| 127 days | 9-0 |
| 212 days | 7-2 |
| 223 days | Court avg. |
| 226 days | 9-0 in result only |
| 232 days | 8-1 |
| 283 days | 5-4 |
| 346 days | 6-3 |
More fun with statistics... Here is the average time from argument to decision based on who authored the majority opinion.
138 days - Chambers
176 days - Owens
207 days - C. Johnson
210 days - Fairhurst
221 days - Sanders
223 days - Court average
254 days - Stephens
267 days - J. Johnson
279 days - Alexander
281 days - Madsen
Of course a decision may be held up by the author of a concurrence or dissent as well as the majority, and some justices may tend to write in more complex areas of law. Yet the range above is striking, from averages of 138 (Chambers) or 176 (Owens) days on the low end to 279 (Alexander) and 281 (Madsen) days at the other.