Drop consent for amici?

Why jump through hoops?

Law.com has SCOTUS Nixed Consent Requirement for Amicus Briefs. Will Appeals Courts Follow? -- The idea was brought up at the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules’ latest meeting this week, and appears to be welcomed by appellate practitioners.

• Currently, at the appellate level, amici can only submit a brief with consent from the parties or permission from the court. The nation’s highest court had a similar restriction, but scrapped it last year.
• “Our thinking is that our rules ought to be in conformity with the [Supreme Court’s] rules with respect to that,” said U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Judge Jay Bybee, who is chair of the committee.

Hey, if you settle the day before oral argument, your stipulated request to dismiss may be denied and a published opinion could issue if the appeal presents important legal issues of continuing interest to the public--as here today (see fn. 2).