Supreme Court Justices Interrupt Female Attorneys More Often Than Men
Originally published by Kavya Beheraj and Will Chase for Axios
Supreme Court justices are far more likely to interrupt a female attorney during oral arguments than a male attorney, according to a new study analyzing four decades of court transcripts.
By the numbers: A female attorney in conversation with Chief Justice John Roberts can expect to get interrupted 2.1 times more often than her male counterpart.
- Most justices in the study were more likely to interrupt women; the discrepancy was especially pronounced among conservative-leaning justices.
The big picture: Special oral argument rules put in place during the pandemic made the interruption rate more equitable, for a while. However, the bias quickly bounced back once those restrictions eased, compounding the barriers that women already face in the legal profession.