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Raffi Melkonian Profile picture
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2 Nov, 6 tweets, 2 min read
Incredible! SCOTUS has reversed the grant of QI in the CA5 case where an inmate was left to sleep in filth and sewage - I have been following this for a long time.
SCOTUS, imo, endorses the "COME ON MAN" principle that should govern a case this egregious. An officer should know you can't make a man sleep on the floor in sewage.
Here is my original thread.

Here is the SCOTUS opinion, at the end of the orders list.

supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor…
Yes, this case is an extreme outlier, but it will give those of us who litigate QI in CA5 some hope, at least to fight back the argument that the clearly established law has to be exactly on point.
Truly, to describe this case is to decide it.

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More from @RMFifthCircuit

Raffi Melkonian Profile picture
3 Nov
A campaign story. I signed up to work for McCain's campaign. At the time, I was a very junior lawyer. They sent me to Maine on election day to do poll watching. I was the only R lawyer in the district. The democrats had assigned three lawyers to the district. 1/
I was given like a schedule of polls to go to. After the second one, where the democrats showed up shortly after I did, one of them said - "Hey, want to just ride with us? We can talk and maybe have some lunch."

So that's what I did. 2/
We'd go to the polls. Do the observing that was meant to happen. The lawyers told me stories about law in Maine. We had shrimp rolls, I think. I called in several reports back to the central office - people getting mad about the election and yelling slogans near the polls. 3/
Read 7 tweets
Raffi Melkonian Profile picture
3 Nov
The appeal in the Fifth Circuit of Judge Hanen’s decision has now been docketed. I expect the Court to act tonight. Maybe in the AM, but tonight more likely. Image
Eye roll at it being designated a civil rights case (just a technical thing, doesn’t mean anything). Indeed.
When I say I expect action tonight, that’s assuming the plaintiffs laid the groundwork (ie, called the court and told them to expect emergency motion practice). If they didn’t sad trombone noise may ensue. Federal courts don’t do stuff for you just because you want them too.
Read 20 tweets
Raffi Melkonian Profile picture
2 Nov
Judge Hanen's hearing is now open on the conference line

txs.uscourts.gov
I can hardly hear anything, but from the little I can gather Hanen doesn't seem inclined to throw out the votes. But again, I can hardly hear.
Someone (a woman) is destroying the Bush v. Gore argument right now.
Read 88 tweets
Raffi Melkonian Profile picture
2 Nov
A flurry of filings in the SDTX drive-through filing lawsuit, including from @ProjectLincoln.

It's a shame we all have to deal with this kook's lawsuit (I mean Hotze) but here we are.
@ProjectLincoln If you want to dispute my characterization of Mr. Hotze, I urge you to use the google machine.

texastribune.org/2020/07/03/ste…
I also note: the suit is not supported by the Texas SG or anything like that, or the state party apparatus, or any significant republican lawyers. Doesn't mean they won't appear, but I think those absences are significant.
Read 6 tweets
Raffi Melkonian Profile picture
8 Sep
I gave some advice over the weekend that I want to spin out a little. The crisp bottom line is that the "sophistication" of legal work is often orthogonal to the satisfaction an appellate lawyer can derive from working on it. 1/ #AppellateTwitter
One of the factors that kept me in my first job longer than I should have stayed was the belief that I needed to work on "sophisticated" matters. By this I understood big dollar civil matters involving complex commercial disputes or many parties or "bet the company" scenarios /2
And it is true that in many cases, those cases *do* involve very interesting issues. Novel, cutting, edge disputes about securities fraud, or the conflicts between federal and state jurisdiction, or complex matters of federal procedural law. /3
Read 10 tweets
Raffi Melkonian Profile picture
2 Sep
My notes from participating in two days of zoom oral arguments (these are meant as ideas - I'm not the pope of zoom oral arguments)

1) Attend whatever practice or rehearsal the Court offers. In both cases, I found it very useful to work on my volume and background with staff.
2) It's very important to be attentive to a judge wanting to speak. You don't have the normal cues - like the slight lean forward - so keep an eye on the judges and listen hard.

If you don't, you end up speaking over a judge. That is not good.
3) Practice not moving your head around too much. I think it's distracting. Relatedly, I moved too much sometimes even though in the several Zoom CLEs I've given, I was good about staying still.
Read 13 tweets

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