Wisconsin Supreme Court productivity has plummeted

Justices issued just 14 decisions, a small fraction of any other term

The Wisconsin Supreme Court issued only 14 decisions during its most recent term, roughly one-third or less than any other term in at least the last 50 years, according to a statistical analysis by Marquette University professor Alan Ball.

Ball found that during the 2023-24 term the high court produced the fewest decisions since 1927, the earliest term for which data are available.

The most decisions issued in a single term were the 386 decisions handed down in 1932-33. The number of decisions was often over 200 until the late 1970s when the state’s Court of Appeals was created through a constitutional amendment. The number slowly declined after that but has been between 40 and 60 until the most recent term.

Ball gathered data from Court records and other legal databases, counting the number of decisions issued within a court term. He omitted Memorandum Decisions and Orders, which state only the outcome of a case without providing reasoning or analysis. He also omitted deadlocked per curiam decisions and cases that were dismissed, as well as disciplinary matters.

Wisconsin’s Supreme Court issued fewer decisions than any of its neighbors. At the same time, it had the most pages per decision as well as the highest average number of separate opinions per decision.

The number of pages per decision rose dramatically in Wisconsin from just over 40 in 2022-23 to about 75 in 2023-24 due largely to a jump in the average length of concurring and dissenting opinions.

The underlying numbers