[3] In 1935 Justice Riley invalidated a regulation passed by Oklahoma City that prohibited whites and African Americans from living on the same streets.
[7] One source has claimed that Riley was a successful candidate of the Ku Klux Klan, and in a 1947 case supported segregation as "... a member of the court that denied Ada Lois admission to the University of Oklahoma School of Law".
[6] In 1998, two professors at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, Joseph T. Thai and Andrew M. Coats, published their research into the decline of oral argument in state appellate courts, compared to its use in earlier times.
They found that the move towards total reliance on written documents might be producing adverse effects on the quality of decisions and on public confidence in the outcomes.
[11] Fletcher disagreed with the sanctity and value of oral argument in the judicial arena, and wrote a number of legal books and papers that are cited by Thai and Coats.
Instead the judges should read written briefs by the opposing attorneys, then vote their opinions straightaway, thus saving the hour that was customarily reserved for oral argument.