J. Newman channels Tom Petty

 

Law360 has Even After Suspension, Judge Newman Is Not Backing Down

After being suspended by colleagues investigating her fitness to serve on the bench, 96-year-old Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman said in an interview with Law360 that she's prepared to fight the decision for as long as it takes, calling the case "very bad for this court."

Blumberg Law has Passionate Opinions, Not Personal Attacks, Judges Tell Students

Wearing a judicial robe means often deciding contentious cases with some of the same people year after year, and for Judge David R. Stras, of the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, doing that successfully means putting into practice the maxim “we can disagree without being disagreeable.”

And Fifth Circuit Judge Adds Alternate Majority Opinion to Dissent

A federal appeals court judge published what he described as the opinion “that should have been issued” to his dissent in a death penalty case, in a move attorneys say marks a departure from typical practice.

“In the interest of time, instead of penning a long dissent pointing to the panel majority’s and district court’s myriad mistakes, I attach the Fifth Circuit panel opinion that should have been issued,” [Judge Jerry E.] Smith wrote.

Smith’s opinion is somewhat similar to a 2022 concurring opinion issued by Judge Lawrence VanDyke of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, a Trump appointee. The appeals court panel had ruled against a California county that required gun stores to close at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Law.com's story is Dissenting Judge Pens Alternative Majority Opinion in Death Penalty Appeal -- Jerry Smith, of the Fifth Circuit, presents—by way of dissent—the decision that he says "should have been issued."