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By the time a case gets up there - which means surviving every step of the appeals process beforehand, which is non-trivial - it's not that likely to be an open-and-shut affair most of the time. By the time something hits SCOTUS, you've got to keep track not only of the arguments that are going to be presented before it (the people on either side of the case obviously don't stop talking before that!), but you'll likely have a few rainforestacres' worth of previous decisions, court transcripts, information on evidence or other things necessary for the case, etc. etc. etc. that have to be kept in mind, read, examined, etc.
Keep in mind that there isn't a shortage of court cases which can take several days, or even weeks, at the lower levels. There's a lot of stuff involved in those things, and I would assume it starts to pile up as it goes through appeals.
To be honest, seventy cases a year doesn't sound that unreasonable. I'd rather a supreme court spend some time on its cases, listening to the arguments, looking at the evidence, and discussing with one another, than the alternative of hurling precedent grenades with wild abandon as quickly as possible. If the court's say is final - and, for the most part, it is - I don't have a problem with the court's say also being as deliberate as possible.
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