Long High Court Sessions Makes Advocates Happy, Stomachs Grumble

Eighty percent of Supreme Court arguments went over their allotted time this term, for an average of nearly 30 additional minutes.

The culprit is the pandemic-era shift away from the traditional free-for-all format that was largely time limited to a hybrid one that also includes a round robin.

Long gone are the days of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who would “cut off people mid-syllable the very millisecond the argument was over,” said Haynes and Boone partner and Supreme Court advocate Daniel Geyser.

High court veterans overwhelmingly say they prefer elongated arguments, which allow them to speak at ...