Responses to Influence

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the time between the judicial conference and the announcement of the Court’s opinion. What takes place during this period (which usually lasts several months but can even traverse court terms) is not public, although the willingness of some justices to release their conference dockets, notes, and memoranda has provided a degree of information about what takes place during this interval. At the conference only the participating judges are present, and no public record is made of the vote—if there is a vote. Recall that any decision made about the disposition of the case at the case conference is a tentative one; allegiances can shift, and slippage can develop in what appeared to be a firm majority.