Interesting that they only looked at federal appellate court trials, where there are only judges. I would think there would be an even larger effect in jury trials.

Although the overall conclusion is not surprising, it is at least modestly surprising that professional judges (as opposed to jurors) are swayed by looks.

On the other hand, it's possible that there is a correlation between the best attorneys and the most attractive attorneys (because they were given many opportunities coming up through the ranks), and what is being measured in this study is actually the correlation between high-skill attorneys and winning outcomes.

I doubt that at the Supreme Court level there is any difference.