Majority Opinion Assignment in Salient Cases on theU.S. Supreme Court: Are New Associate Justices Assigned Fewer Opinions?

Abstract

Are new associate justices on the United States Supreme Court assigned fewer salientopinions than can be expected by chance? This question was investigated for the 1930 to1995 terms of the Court, a sixty-six-year period in which thirty-two new associate justicestook their oath of office.