How Appealing



Thursday, May 28, 2015

“Justices toss Washington law countering bad-faith lawsuits; The Supreme Court has struck down Washington’s anti-SLAPP law that attempts to curtail lawsuits brought in bad faith to hinder public discussion”: The Associated Press has this report.

And at “The Volokh Conspiracy,” Eugene Volokh has a post titled “Washington Supreme Court strikes down anti-SLAPP statute as violating the right to trial by jury.”

You can access today’s unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court of the State of Washington at this link.

Posted at 4:12 PM by Howard Bashman



“Hawaii Military Carve Out May Play Role in Voting District Case”: Jess Bravin has this post today at WSJ.com’s “Law Blog.”

Posted at 4:03 PM by Howard Bashman



“Roberts at 10: The Strongest Free Speech Court in History?” David H. Gans has this report online today at the Constitutional Accountability Center.

Posted at 3:44 PM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Alito’s Son Quits Gibson Dunn for Capitol Hill Job; Philip Alito takes post as a counsel to Republicans on a Senate investigative subcommittee”: Tony Mauro had this post last night at “The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times.”

Posted at 3:12 PM by Howard Bashman



“U.S. judge grills lawyer defending Obama’s healthcare law changes”: Lindsay Dunsmuir of Reuters has this report.

The Associated Press reports that “Administration asks judge to toss House health care suit.”

And Dylan Scott of National Journal reports that “Judge Initially Skeptical of Plea to Dismiss House GOP’s Obamacare Lawsuit; The administration says the House doesn’t have standing to challenge how it implements the Affordable Care Act.”

Posted at 2:50 PM by Howard Bashman



The Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure has approved the FRAP briefing word limit reduction amendment: Here’s an early report from a “How Appealing” reader who attended today’s meeting:

[T]he Standing Committee approved the amendments to the Appellate Rules that were included in the Agenda Book. Judge Graber abstained from the vote on the reduced brief length limits, voicing many of the arguments that were raised during the comment period.

With respect to this blog’s 25-hour survey of federal appellate judges to ascertain their degree of support for or opposition to the FRAP briefing word limit reduction amendment, let me begin by disclosing that the number of responses received was too small to be statistically significant. The total number of votes received do not include any votes from judges serving on the First, Second, and Tenth Circuits, because no judges serving on those courts responded to the survey.

Of the judges who emailed me in response to the survey after it appeared here yesterday at 11 a.m. eastern time, the votes opposing the brief word limit reduction amendment exceeded the votes supporting the word limit reduction amendment by a ratio of 2-to-1. Nevertheless, because the vast majority of federal appellate judges did not respond to the survey, it is not appropriate to extrapolate from the data available to me what the overall level of support among federal appellate judges for the FRAP briefing word limit reduction actually happens to be. Of course, I thank those federal appellate judges who took the time to respond to this survey.

Next up, the Judicial Conference of the United States will consider whether to approve the pending rule amendments.

Posted at 1:38 PM by Howard Bashman



“Apple loses bid to disqualify antitrust monitor — US court”: Jonathan Stempel and Nate Raymond of Reuters have this report.

The Associated Press has a report headlined “Appeals court: Apple must submit to imposition of monitor.”

And at the “Hollywood, Esq.” blog of The Hollywood Reporter, Eriq Gardner has a post titled “Apple Loses Appeal Over Court-Appointed Antitrust Monitor.”

You can access today’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit at this link.

Posted at 1:18 PM by Howard Bashman



“Constitution Check: Do the Supreme Court and other federal courts need a watchdog?” Lyle Denniston has this post today at the “Constitution Daily” blog of the National Constitution Center.

Posted at 1:03 PM by Howard Bashman



“Friend-of-Court Briefs Raise Recusal Questions for Justices”: Jess Bravin has this post today at WSJ.com’s “Law Blog.”

Posted at 12:57 PM by Howard Bashman



“White House has been aided recently by ruling in contraceptives case”: Robert Barnes has this article in today’s edition of The Washington Post.

Posted at 12:15 PM by Howard Bashman



How to vote in this blog’s survey of federal appellate judges on reducing the maximum length of briefs from 14,000 to 13,000 words: If you are a federal appellate judge, simply send me an email stating whether you SUPPORT or OPPOSE the proposal. This blog’s email address is appellateblog@hotmail.com. This post will remain here at the top of this page until noon eastern time today, at which point voting will close. The results of this survey will be announced here at or before 2 p.m. eastern time today. Further details concerning this first ever “How Appealing” survey of federal appellate judges and the proposed FRAP brief length reduction amendment can be accessed in this post from yesterday.

Posted at 12:00 PM by Howard Bashman



“Abrahamson appeals federal court order allowing her to be replaced as chief justice”: The Associated Press has a report that begins, “Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Shirley Abrahamson has appealed a federal court ruling temporarily denying her attempt to remain as chief justice.”

Posted at 8:00 AM by Howard Bashman