Amicus disclosure proposal

 Law360 has 2 Dems Urge Judicial Conference To Set Amicus Disclosures

• Two Democratic lawmakers have asked the policymaking body for U.S. federal courts to consider revising and fortifying statutes that they say shield "coordinated squadrons and flotillas" of front-group amici from disclosing who funds them.
• Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga. — both longtime advocates for federal judicial transparency — in a letter last week told the Judicial Conference of the United States' Committee on Rules of Practice and its Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules that the issue reached the U.S. Supreme Court last year in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. Whitehouse chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee's courts subcommittee, and Johnson is the top Democrat on the House's courts subcommittee.
• In that dispute, the National Rifle Association helped fund not only the underlying litigation, but at least 12 amici, without disclosure, the letter states. The Supreme Court eventually ruled in the underlying litigation funded by NRA to expand the scope of the Second Amendment outside the home for the first time.

The NLJ has Appellate Lawyer Beth Brinkmann Talks Move to Leading Abortion Rights Legal Group -- "The reason was the Dobbs decision," said Brinkmann, who clerked for Justice Harry Blackmun, author of the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade.

• When Beth Brinkmann headed the Justice Department’s appellate civil division during Barack Obama’s presidency, she handled many matters related to reproductive rights, including the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive coverage.
• Now, Brinkmann is taking on a more-direct role in the fight for abortion rights. Last month, she left a Covington & Burling partnership to join the Center for Reproductive Rights as its senior litigation director.

In the category of "maybe not the best name for your pet," see this unpub, which begins: "Plaintiff ... was bit by a dog named Munch ...."