Three more Fifth Circuit arguments scheduled for this year. Going to hit my career high in arguments for a year this year (8).
That’s not a humble brag. Just a brag that if you’re totally determined to make this your career you might make it happen. #appellatetwitter
Yes I know, fed defender friends are going to show up at some point and say they had 25. Ok, but these things are rarer on the ground on the civil side.
I also want to note we’re pretty fanatical about getting other people arguments. @TWapplaw’s insistence was how I started getting them, and we are always working to get them to others too.
And like I always say, you really need to be fanatical about this work.
And one more note: you can't be that picky. Like, to get a steady stream of appellate work, not everything is going to be Marbury, right?
And yet you need to treat each case as if it is. Because every client deserves your fullest effort - pro bono, not pro bono, big company, small dude, whatever.
We're starting with the California Solicitor General's 2 minute free-time. After that, Chief Justice Roberts will start off the questioning and then we go down the seniority list. This is weird - it's because we're having telephone arguments.
Roberts starts with standing - he questions whether the plaintiffs even are injured by the mandate. What if Congress passes a law requiring everyone to mow their lawn?
I've noticed some of my new followers from the Texas voting case don't know I cook or why. So let me tell the origin story real quick. My mom is one of the great home cooks.
When I went to college overseas, I wandered downstairs to the cafeteria the first night. 1/
I got a tray and went down the line. A sort of gruff lady yelled, "What kind of soup do ye want?" I asked what there was. She said, "red, green, & clear." I said, "What?"
And she said, "The flavors change, the colors stay the same." 2/
The food was as undelicious as that intro promised. But our dorm had kitchens on each hallway. So a week into school, I order @NigelSlater's great cookbook, Real Food. That, now, was more than 20 years ago.
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/
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.
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.
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.