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Ghostwriters on the Court?: A Stylistic Analysis of U.S. Supreme Court Opinion Drafts

George Washington University

James F. Spriggs, II

University of California, Davis

Lee Sigelman

George Washington University

A common refrain among Supreme Court watchers is that today it is lawclerks who are primarily responsible for drafting the justices' opinions. We search for traces of clerical drafting—identifiable stylistic "fingerprints"—in the first drafts of the opinions that two justices, Lewis F. Powell Jr., and Thurgood Marshall, circulated during the 1985 term of the Court. These two justices relied on their clerks to a different degree: Powell's office procedures called for him and several clerks to participate in writing each opinion, whereas Marshall reputedly delegated most writing responsibilities to his clerks. We do detect the clerks' distinct styles in the justices 'opinions, though; as expected, the fingerprints are clearer for Marshall's clerks than for Powell's. We also find differences across opinion type, with the clerks' unique style most easily discernible in separate opinions, as opposed to majority opinions.

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