Kelo-Based Trivia Question
on Jan 19, 2006 at 9:27 am
A professor just asked this question on a listserv, and I thought it was worth throwing out to our readers:
Because inclement weather shut down the Ft. Lauderdale airport, Justice Stevens was unable to attend the oral arguments in the Just Compensation Clause cases heard last February 22d — Kelo and Lingle. He then assigned the majority opinion to himself in Kelo. Moreover, Chief Justice Rehnquist wrote majority opinions in four cases in which he did not attend the oral arguments last Term: Muehler v. Mena, Tenet v. Doe, Pace v. DiGuglielmo, and van Orden v. Perry.
Are there historical precedents where a Justice has written a majority opinion after having missed the oral argument? Any such cases where the opinion-writer was not also the assigning Justice?
