Today's appellate law decision, courtesy of 2/3

2/3 publishes an opinion (granting writ relief) that will be of interest to appellate lawyers here, holding "that Code of Civil Procedure section 170.6, subdivision (a)(2) allows a party to exercise a second peremptory challenge only after prevailing in an appeal from a final judgment, but not following reversal of an interim decision. Early in this litigation, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) successfully challenged a jurist under section 170.6. Thereafter, we affirmed in part and reversed in part the denial of a special motion to strike under the anti-SLAPP statute. The trial judge who had ruled on the anti-SLAPP motion then accepted the NCAA‟s postappeal peremptory challenge under section 170.6, subdivision (a)(2) and disqualified himself. Todd McNair petitions for writ of mandate contending that the trial court erred as a matter of law and asking us to issue a writ directing the court to vacate its order accepting the postappeal peremptory challenge. Based on the clear words of the statute, we agree with McNair. Accordingly, we grant the writ petition."