The functions of oral argument in the U.S. supreme court

BRIEFS and oral argument command the most immediate attention of the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court as they proceed to deliberate the cases to which they have decided to give fulldress treatment. This foreground of the judges' environment, and particularly the crucial questions which the justices' punctuate oral argument, are often overlooked by students of the Supreme Court despite statements like Justice Goldberg's that we do not make up our minds in advance of the presentation of a case. The purpose of this article is to discuss the functions of oral argument for both counsel and the justices, particular attention given to the judges' questions. Examples are drawn primarily from the Supreme Court's race relations cases from immediately before the School Desegregation Cases of 1954 and 1955 through the end of with all deliberate speed in 1969.