[P-Marlowe]

Toobin is apparently miffed because Thomas does not give additional limelight to the attorneys appearing before the court.

99% of the questions asked in oral arguments are meaningless. The Justices have already made up their minds before oral arguments. Oral arguments by and large are circus.

The case is not won or lost on oral argument. The case is decided on the written briefs and the peculiar prejudices of the justices.

[Alberta's Child]

Clarence Thomas explained his silence on the bench during oral arguments in his autobiography, My Grandfather's Son.

I'll paraphrase his explanation here:

"By the time a case comes up for oral arguments before the Supreme Court I have spent many hours reading every court filing, brief, appellate court decision, etc. in the case. Every argument I can possibly imagine is presented in these documents, and there is nothing else I can learn about the case by asking questions in those oral arguments."