Wednesday, May 15, 2024

Speedy Justices?

  • Brett Kavanaugh proved fastest among the three Supreme Court justices who ran the ACLI Capital Challenge, though he got beat by the solicitor general. Kavanaugh, 59, finished the three-mile race on Wednesday in 24 minutes, 20 seconds, which was slightly behind his 2023 pace.
  • that wasn’t good enough to top Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar of team “Racing in the Morning Suits Us.” She finished in 22 minutes, 23 seconds.
  • Justice Amy Coney Barrett, 52, who was part of the “Sua Sprinte” team, finished in 26 minutes, 9 seconds. She was ahead of Ketanji Brown Jackson, 53, who wore a T-shirt bearing her team name, “Junior Justice League,” and finished in 33 minutes, 24 seconds.
  • A current Barrett clerk finished first among judicial branch participants. Nathaniel Sutton, son of Sixth Circuit Judge Jeffrey Sutton, finished third overall with a time of 15:44.
Bloomberg Law also has Federal Circuit Judges Detail the Fastest Ways to Lose Your Case
  • Several types of blunders during oral argument can torpedo cases that are otherwise in the bag, Federal Circuit judges warned a conference room of appellate litigators.
  • “I think as many cases are lost at oral argument as are won at oral argument,” said Judge Timothy B. Dyk, who was an appellate lawyer before joining the influential court with jurisdiction over patent cases in 2000.
  • Taking too long during arguments, refusing to make any concessions, and displaying outward animosity to opposing counsel are fast-track ways to lose the judges you’re appearing before
  • One way lawyers lose points that Dyk said “happens with some frequency” is advocates refusing to engage with the court’s hypothetical.

CLA's Litigation Section's Litigation Update: May 2024 is here.

The Recorder has The History and Continued Viability of California’s Unpublished Cases Rule -- "Surely a court would be better off with the benefit of a unique, on-point, but unpublished case than having to decide an issue in a vacuum," write Kevin Frankel and Christian Hochhausler of McGuireWoods.