SCOTUSblog has quantified what court watchers may have suspected: Justice Neil Gorsuch is the funniest justice on the Supreme Court. A new tally of laughter during oral arguments from the 2017-18 through 2024-25 terms gave Gorsuch 225 laughs, placing him ahead of Chief Justice John Roberts, who logged 189, and Justice Elena Kagan, who came in third with 153.
The count was prompted by a comment from Justice Samuel Alito, who noted that there are "some people who have nothing better to do than count Supreme Court laughs." The author, editorial assistant Nora Collins, took that as a challenge and reviewed laughter across the eight-term span to crown the bench's top comedian.
The results are informal but offer a rare glimpse into the lighter side of the Court's public proceedings. While the tally does not measure the quality or timing of the jokes, it does suggest that Gorsuch's dry wit has been a consistent feature of the courtroom in recent years.