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…unless Antonin Scalia is hearing your case, it would seem.
As was reported on the Atlantic Wire website, an analysis of US Supreme Court transcripts by Jay D Wexler, a US law professor at the University of Boston, led to the conclusion in 2005 that Antonin Scalia is the funniest of the US Justices. Wexler based his findings on the number of times the notation “[laughter]” appeared next to comments recorded in the court transcripts. The results of the analysis have generated interest in the ‘personal’ side of the US Justices, with Ryan Malphurs continuing Wexler’s research by considering instances of laughter in the US Supreme Court from 2006 – 2007. Although taking a different approach, Malphurs drew the same conclusion that Antonin Scalia is the funniest of the US Supreme Court Justices (and also noted that Clarence Thomas maintains a more serious approach with no instances of laughter recorded during his hearings).
As far as we are aware, there has been no such study done in the UK, but who knows whether something similar will be done in relation to UK Supreme Court Justices in the future….
1 comment
Mark Vinall said:
10/03/2011 at 21:54
Compare this piece http://www.slate.com/id/2286923/ making the case for Chief Justice Roberts as the “funniest Supreme Court justice ever” (and describes his opinion in FCC v AT&T as containing “more laugh lines than Two and a Half Men – and half the coke”).