En banc bonanza in the 5th

Bloomberg Law has Trump-Stocked Fifth Circuit Eyes Record Number of En Banc Cases

• The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is increasingly reviewing its own decisions, teeing up the influential court to hear more en banc cases this year than it has in over 15 years.
• The New Orleans-based federal appeals court reheard five cases en banc in January, and has agreed to hear five more during a sitting in May. The court traditionally hears other pending en banc cases in October, and if the court agrees to take up at least one more this year, it’ll be the most since it heard 11 cases in 2003.
• An infusion of newer members and an increase in nationally watched cases being filed within the court’s jurisdiction may be behind the higher number of en banc cases in recent years
• Out of the 17 active judges on the circuit, eight have been appointed since 2017, comprising six Trump appointees and two Biden nominees. That gives the court not only a conservative majority, but a relatively younger one

Closer to home, UCI's 2024 Moot Court Competition will hold its final round on April 5, with a panel judges: Judge Marsha Berzon and Kim Wardlaw of the 9th Circuit and Judge Otis Wright (C.D. Cal.).

Yesterday's DJ had Justice Hoffstadt's Connecting the dots on the admissibility of expert opinions on defendant’s intent -- The U.S. Supreme Court will hear argument in Diaz v. United States, a case that will clarify the extent to which expert witnesses in criminal cases can offer opinions about a defendant’s mens rea. Currently, the law is unclear on whether expert opinions directly address a defendant’s intent or merely provide a basis for the jury to infer that intent.