successive changes in the court, a majority were Republicans.
This, as has been well said, "seemed all of a sudden to give to
the judicial department a unity like that of the executive, to
concentrate the whole force of that department in its chief, and
to reduce the side justices to a sort of cabinet
advisers."[Footnote: Thayer, "John Marshall," 54.]

In some of the State Supreme Courts in early days, it was the
practice for the Chief Justice to deliver an opinion in every
case, but his associates frequently added concurring or
dissenting ones.

Of late years the business of appellate courts in the United
States and in most of the States is so considerable that it is
necessary to divide the labor, and the cases are generally
distributed equally for the preparation of opinions.

It is the prevailing practice to have the opinion, when drafted
by the judge to whom that duty is assigned, typewritten or
printed, and a copy sent to each of the other judges for their
consideration separately. At a subsequent conference each judge
is called upon by the Chief Justice to state whether he concurs
in it, and if alterations are proposed there is opportunity for
their discussion. This practice did not become general until the
latter part of the nineteenth century, when the typewriter had
come into common use. Prior to that time the draft opinion was
ordinarily first made known by its author to the other judges
either by reading it aloud at the final consultation or by
sending one manuscript copy around to each in succession for his
endorsement of approval or disapproval. In some courts it was