The 2026-27 term of the Supreme Court has begun, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson emerging as a dominant speaker in the first round of oral arguments. Despite a relatively quiet start in the first argued case, Suncor Energy v. Boulder County, Jackson went on to lead three of the next four arguments and finished the six-case sitting with 6,254 words, significantly more than any of her colleagues.
The arguments revealed interesting patterns, including Jackson and Justice Sonia Sotomayor repeatedly concentrating their attention on the same litigating side, along with Justice Neil Gorsuch, despite their ideological differences. However, their questions did not necessarily point toward identical legal outcomes.
The cases themselves raised issues about when, where, and under what conditions judicial intervention is available, essentially becoming the theme of the court’s October session. Jackson’s dominance and some unexpected cross-ideological alignment were notable features of the first round of oral arguments.
In Johnson v. United States Congress, Neil Gorsuch questioned whether the veterans’ benefits system was equipped to handle constitutional disputes, while Sonia Sotomayor highlighted the unnecessary hardship of forcing veterans through administrative channels before seeking judicial review. Ketanji Brown Jackson also pressed the government on its handling of constitutional issues in practice. Each justice approached the matter differently, yet all three exposed flaws in the proposed review process.
Patterns of Participation
Across the six arguments, conservative justices contributed 54.3% of substantive justice speech, compared with 45.7% from the three liberals. Conservatives supplied the majority of justices’ words in five of the six cases, with Johnson being the exception. Justice Brett Kavanaugh finished second across the sitting with 5,031 words, followed closely by Justice Elena Kagan and Gorsuch.
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The way participation varied within the conservative and liberal blocs was particularly striking. Kavanaugh contributed 23.7% of the justices’ remarks in Suncor but only 6.0% in Johnson. Gorsuch’s involvement ranged from 25.7% in Beaird to a minimal 1.2% in Salazar v. Vital Global. Meanwhile, Kagan, who averaged 21.2% of the discussion in the first-day arguments, dropped to 13.6% across the remaining four cases.
The six arguments did not show one bloc consistently dominating the conversation. Instead, which justices spoke most depended heavily on the specific legal issues at hand, often shifting focus to different members depending on the case’s particular challenges.
Access to Judicial Review
Four of the court‘s first six arguments presented different versions of a recurring question: what must happen before a federal court can intervene in a case? The cases explored different legal doctrines, from Supreme Court jurisdiction and veterans’ constitutional claims to procedural rules and administrative finality.
In Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guåhan, the justices debated whether the Air Force’s pursuit of a hazardous-waste permit in Guam constituted a final agency decision and how that decision interacted with environmental review requirements under federal law. The government received 67% of the justices’ direct questions, though it only represented 52.7% of the total advocate speech.
The discussions revealed differing views on when an agency’s decision is firm enough to justify court intervention. Kagan questioned whether an agency’s completed deliberations could be rendered non-final simply because another regulator’s approval remained necessary. Jackson, typically on Kagan’s side, focused on the opposite possibility: if Guam’s permitting authority could impose conditions materially changing the Air Force’s project, perhaps the application remained a proposal rather than an operative federal commitment.
Gorsuch and Chief Justice John Roberts approached the problem from another angle, exploring whether postponing review could leave challengers without an effective opportunity to challenge the federal government’s environmental obligations. Brett Kavanaugh analyzed the practical effects of requiring repeated rounds of legal scrutiny. The justices’ varied questions showed the complexity of determining when courts can intervene and the different methods they used to address this issue.
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In Beaird v. United States, the justices weighed the authority of the U.S. Sentencing Commission and the legal weight of its guidance documents. Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch led the discussion, together accounting for nearly half of the court’s total remarks. Yet their exchanges exposed deep disagreements over how to interpret the Commission’s power and the status of its commentary.
Jackson challenged the premise that the Sentencing Guidelines and their commentary can meaningfully be separated, while Gorsuch examined where Congress expressly authorized binding commentary. The justices’ competing legal frameworks highlighted the complexities of the issue and the different approaches they took to resolving it. The argument in Beaird v. United States ended with 7,791 words from the justices, more than twice their total in Anderson, with Gorsuch and Jackson accounting for 25.7% and 22.4% of these, respectively.
As the term progresses, the justices’ approaches to judicial review will likely continue to evolve. In Salazar v. Vital Global, the court considered the application of the Video Privacy Protection Act, with Joshua Hammack receiving numerous questions about his interpretation of the statute.
Caroline Flynn, arguing on behalf of Prutehi Guåhan, experienced a significantly lower cutoff rate than Paul Clement, advocating the opposite position.
Competing Legal Frameworks
The justices’ exchanges in Beaird v. United States demonstrate the complexities of competing legal frameworks. Jackson and Gorsuch developed substantially different accounts of the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s authority, with Jackson challenging the premise that the Sentencing Guidelines and their commentary can be meaningfully separated.
