US Supreme Court rule stops male justices interrupting female colleagues
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The US Supreme Court has introduced a new rule to prevent male justices from interrupting their female counterparts during oral arguments.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor revealed the change at an event at New York University’s law school on Wednesday. Justices will now be allocated a time for uninterrupted questioning.
The change is based on academic studies, among them one by the law school at Northwestern University. The 2017 study by Tonja Jacobi and Dylan Schweers found that female justices became progressively more like their male counterparts over time “in order to reduce the extent to which they are dominated by the men”.
Justice Sotomayor said she had noticed this “without question” since taking up her appointment in 2009. The behaviour, she added, was reflective of wider society. “Most of the time women say things and they are not heard in the same way as men who might say the identical thing,” she said.
The new format has been a success: so far this term the justices have not cut one another off.
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