Thursday, December 14, 2017

Commission Confirms Appointments to Courts of Appeal

Here's the press release to document that Associate Justice Elwood Lui is now Presiding Justice of 2/2; LASC Judge Anne Egerton is now Justice Egerton in 2/3; and Judge Patricia Guerrero is now a 4/2 Justice. Photos of today's confirmation hearings here!

Other notable items:
  • N. Randy Smith to Take Senior Status, Opening Up Another Ninth Circuit Seat (on Aug. 11, 2018) Official Press Release here.
  • 9th Circuit In re Complaint of Judicial Misconduct filed today re Judge Kozinski.
  • Federal Judicial Nominee Flunks 'Motion in Limine' Definition at Senate Hearing: Federal Election Commissioner Matthew Petersen has never tried a case, has assisted on just a handful of depositions and was stumped by a Republican congressman on a question about the basic trial term.
  • Ninth Try Is a Charm for Lawyer Making First Oral Argument: The decline in oral arguments for federal courts is well-known and documented and has sparked concerned discussions between lawyers and judges.
  • Bryan Garner's latest: How to start a sentence: Consider all your alternatives, and sprinkle in some conjunctions, too
  • Today the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown LA, home to the 2d District, had to be evacuated in the middle of 2/2's oral argument calendar, around 9:40 a.m. Everyone had to leave the building for about 15 minutes, but the entire evacuation and reassembly in the courtroom took about 45 minutes. There apparently was no actual emergency, and the evacuation alarm was apparently caused by a faulty switch somewhere--a false alarm originating from a duct in the 4th floor of the North Tower. Here's the docket for the case being argued when the alarm went off, showing argument starting at 9:34 and ending at 10:47 with the notation "(fire alarm for bldg. went off during OA on this matter)"!
  • You may (or may not) also have noticed that the online docket for California appellate courts has upgraded its security to thwart robots. The website looks the same, but if you had bookmarked particular dockets under the old system, those old bookmarks no longer work and need to be re-done.