This Friday afternoon I'm giving the Fifth Circuit update at the mighty Conference on State and Federal Appeals (so sad I can't see all my friends at the conference this year - hopefully this is the last one fully on zoom)
I'm often asked how to find out who the appellate lawyers in Texas are (by students or laterals). One way, it occurs to me, is to just make a list of all the speakers. That's underinclusive, but it'll capture a LOT of us.
Also, the timing gives you a fair summary of Texas appellate practice - Fed Appeals is Friday PM, with most of the conference given over to state appeals. That's ... how practice is here too.
@doncruse's statistical presentation is a can't miss.
So when I argued at the Louisiana Supreme Court a couple of weeks ago, I noticed the lectern. It was emblazoned with a vintage logo from IBM, and two brass clocks. I couldn’t find anything about it. /1
After fumbling around on google, I emailed the Supreme Court library. After a bit of back and forth, I received a gracious response from the retired Clerk of Court. /2
It’s an IBM Lectern originally bought when the Court moved to its then new building in 1958. It was fully wired into the courtroom with a then state of the art lighting and sound system /3
(1) The plaintiffs had used an expert to calculate how much harm the NFL was causing through Sunday Ticket. The expert used college football and how games are distributed there as his example. The Court says this methodology doesn't work.
The Judge says this college methodology didn't take into account the distinctions between college and pro football.
Getting a late start today because I was looking for the constitutional text that says you can't use evidence of immune official acts to prosecute non-immune non-official acts.
It is probably in a different translation.
Maybe this stuff about how a giant criminal should be insulated from his crimes is in the Federalist Papers, and I missed it there as well.
A quick story about my dad: He couldn't afford to attend the American University of Beirut, which is fancy. So he was settling into not going to college, when someone told him there was a scholarship for Armenian Catholics (a tiny minority of Armenians) in Mumbai. 1/
He wrote. Startled, the Armenian Catholic congregation of Mumbai wrote back - no one had ever attempted to take the scholarship - and invited him to India. He packed a suitcase, bought a suit from the undertaker (yes, that's where you went for used suits) and got on a ship. 2/
And that economics degree he got (St. Xavier's of Mumbai forever!) is how we got to America. I'm forever grateful.
I have been waiting for this one. It’s a big and important decision and will get scrutiny for en banc I am sure. Slow motion thread to come (I’m really busy)
In broad strokes, the case is about whether a public library was allowed to remove books from the library for the views they express. The district judge had issued an injunction requiring the books to be returned.
/1
Some strange people were complaining to the library about books they didn’t like and eventually badgered the library to remove the books. /2