Which US Supreme Court Justices are best known for their wordy or lengthy opinions?

Answer 1

A number of Supreme Court Justices have been recognized for their verbose or lengthy opinions. Sometimes the comment is meant as criticism; other times, it's simply a neutral observation. Most Justices would probably prefer to be remembered for the content of their opinions, rather than the length, however.

The length of written decisions, in general, has grown over the history of the court, from a median of 763 words in the period from 1790-1810, to 4,250 words today.

Historically, Justice Horace Gray's opinions are considered the longest, at an average of 12.24 pages each. In contrast, Oliver Wendell Holmes were usually the most succinct, at an average of just 3.54 pages, each. The Court average is 8.93 pages.

The longest majority opinion was the per curiam (the author and justices joining the decision are unidentified) decision issued in Buckley v. Valeo, 424 US 1 (1976), which was 30,760 words long, and covered 294 pages. The longest written decision, including the majority and all concurring and dissenting opinions was issued in the Dred Scott case (Scott v. Sandford, 60 US 393 (1856)), at 108,326 words. Chief Justice Roger Taneywrote for the majority.

Justice Louis Brandeis, the first Jewish Justice on the Supreme Court, was known for writing long, thoughtful opinions that combined a sociological perspective with the legal issues of a case.

Justice Charles Evans Hughes, Chief Justice Fuller, and Chief Justice Warren Burger, on the other hand, were known for writing dense, tangential opinions that tended to obscure points of law, rather than illuminate them.

On the current Court, Samuel Alito has most often been a target of criticism for long-winded opinions, as was David Souter, who retired at the end of June 2009. Many Justices have received negative critiques on specific opinions.

Legal scholars claim the tendency toward long, diffuse and heavily footnoted opinions is often a result of the work being authored by the Justices' law clerks, rather than by the Justices themselves (Associate Justice John Paul Stevens still writes the first draft of his opinions in longhand). While the decision may be a product of the appointed Justice's reasoning, a recent law school graduate often documents and writes the first draft. These are passed among the Justices for commentary and editing before being released to the public.

Other factors contributing to longer opinions are the complexities of a particular case, and the number of precedental cases that may need to be considered in forming a decision.