We filed our amicus brief last night! Click through for a link to it if you're interested in reading it. It's a brief on behalf of 5 top legal scholars explaining why Trump's appeal should be dismissed due to the bananas remedy he's seeking.
Like @hannnahmmarie, I'm tremendously proud to have been part of this team effort. What a privilege to have my name on a brief for heroes of mine like @LeahLitman, @marinklevy, @RickSwedloff, Erwin Chemerinsky, and Portia Pedro.
Our amicus brief is just one supporting component of a much larger effort to defeat Trump's effort to wipe out the election. We're proud to have added our voices.
This team also is just one part of a broader project that started here, with this tweet, 23 crazy days ago.
Many, many of you here volunteered to help. And many of you did help, in ways small and big. Some of that work contributed directly to the brief we filed last night, some indirectly. Some fell victim to the Trump chaos.
Last thing: this project and this brief were strengthened immeasurably by the work of @hannnahmmarie. If you don't know about her yet, good golly you will. She is a shimmering talent, a superstar taking shape before our eyes. I was lucky to conspire with her and learn from her.
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Opinion Just issued the CA3 Trump case. Bibas with Smith and Chagares.
Affirmed. Trump loses. Resoundingly.
The opening paragraph:
"Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here."
- Winning Brief, Garner
- Supreme Court & Appellate Advocacy, Frederick
- Sense of Structure, Gopen
- Dreyer's English
- Storycraft, Hart
- Typography for Lawyers, Butterick
If you're in CA3, then PBI's Appellate Practice Manual, too.
For me, @BryanAGarner's Winning Brief was the gateway drug, the book that first made me realize how oh-so much I still had to learn about effective writing. And all these years later it's still my answer to "what 1 book should I get first?"
George Gopen's Sense of Structure is an elaboration of Joseph Williams's Style: Lessons in Clarity & Grace, which was the single book that improved my writing the most.
I haven't been posting today about the big Trump campaign Third Circuit appeal, I've been busy working on an amicus brief a group of us are readying to file in the case. More on that once we file.
In the meantime, parties Trump's suing—the Pa. Secretary of State and a slew of county election boards—filed their briefs this afternoon. I expect other amicus briefs (friend of the court briefs, offered to help the court decide the appeal) to continue coming in.
I've seen several smart commentators already with reactions and highlights from today's briefs, including @RMFifthCircuit and @bradheath.
If Trump ever does appeal yesterday's beatdown, that appeal goes to the Third Circuit. No guarantees, but I predict it's decided by the same panel that decided Bognet on 11/13: Chief Judge Smith, Judge Shwartz, and Judge Scirica.
If that's the CA3 panel, expect much confusion (again, as w Brann) about what it means. Smith was nominated by Bush II, Shwartz by Obama, Scirica by Reagan. But even though Smith & Scirica are moderate conservatives (& Shwartz is centrist) Bognet was a disaster for Trump's case.
But, to be clear, that's only my educated guess about what 3 Third Circuit judges would decide an appeal from yesterday's ruling by Judge Brann, not based on any inside info.
This statement by @SenToomey may be his finest moment in public life. Clear and direct at a crucial moment in our nation's history. An act of real patriotism.
Many are responding to this to point out that his statement comes late. They're right of course. A big reason why we're in such danger now is that Republicans in Congress spent the past 2 weeks, and the past 4+ years, not speaking up like this.
I've been a harsh Toomey critic for years. If anyone bashed him longer or louder than I have for blocking Obama's nomination of the Third Circuit's first black woman, I'm not aware of it. One good statement doesn't erase any of that history.
Conservative twitter is erupting w these Obama-judge takes, but it's all delusional. Judge Brann was a Federalist Society member who served on the Pa. GOP State Comm, on his county Republican committee for 18 years. He reportedly was picked by Toomey.
Judge Brann's nomination questionnaire: "I currently serve as the Republican State Committeeman for Bradford County, Chairman of the Northeast Caucus of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, and as a member of the Leadership Committee of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania."