These tables are derived from information contained in 250 Wisconsin Supreme Court decisions that were turned up in a Nexis Uni search for decisions filed between September 1, 1920, and August 31, 1921. The total of 250 decisions does not include various orders pertaining to petitions, motions, and disciplinary matters involving lawyers and judges.
Also omitted are six deadlocked (3-3) cases: In re Gruhl Sash & Door Co.; Johnston v. West Allis; Kahn v. Malaney; Racine Auto Tire Co. v. Hansen; South Side Malleable Casting Co. v. Four Wheel Drive Auto Co.; and Will of Saveland
When two (or more) cases were in effect consolidated—one was simply said to be ruled by the decision in the other—the cases are counted as only one. For instance: (1) Mueller & Son Co. v. Gothard and Faust Lumber Co. v. Gaudette; and (2) Northwestern Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. State (173 Wis. 119) and Northwestern Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. State (173 Wis. 126).
Eight justices appear in several of the tables because Justice James Kerwin died in January 1921 and was replaced in April by Justice Christian Doerfler. The sources do not make it possible to determine precisely when Justice Kerwin ceased to participate in cases before his death; nor can we tell exactly when Justice Doerfler began voting in decisions filed after his appointment in April. The decisions name the authors of majority opinions and separate opinions, as well as the justices who joined separate opinions, but they do not list the justices who merely joined majority opinions (by far the largest category of participation). Thus, I sometimes had to guess from fragmentary internal evidence whether a decision was, say, 6-0 or 7-0, and this should be borne in mind when viewing some of the following tables.
The tables are available as a complete set and by individual topic in the subsets listed below.
Four-to-Three Decisions
Decisions Arranged by Vote Split
Frequency of Justices in the Majority
Distribution of Opinion Authorship
Frequency of Agreement Between Pairs of Justices
About Alan Ball
Speak Your Mind