So who gets the biggest laughs on the Supreme Court? Guess:
BOSTON — Court jesters, they’re not. But the justices on the nation’s highest court do draw laughs during oral arguments, and a new study finds that the witty and quick-tongued Antonin Scalia brings in the most chuckles from the bench.
According to the study by Boston University law professor Jay D. Wexler, Scalia out-quipped the other eight justices “by a landslide,” instigating 77 “laughing episodes” during oral arguments in the nine-month Supreme Court term that began in October 2004.
Justice Stephen Breyer, who came in second, got 45 laughs. Clarence Thomas, who rarely speaks in court, came in last, with none.
Well, perhaps Thomas gets laughs by doing pantomime.
Actually, we thought the biggest laughs came when they HANDED DOWN their judgements.
There were a lot of “oral arguments” in the Oval Office during Bill Clinton’s term, but they didn’t end in laughs (or did they?).
Hey, Antonin: here’s one you can use that’ll kill ’em in court:
What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 9? “Your honor..”
THIS JUST IN! Our sources tell us a lot of Washington bigwigs are entertainers. They say Karl Rove is a ventriloquist.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.