How Appealing



Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Programming note: Later this afternoon, I will be attending a Major League Baseball playoff game in the Bronx with a family member who is now attending law school in New York City. As a result, additional posts are unlikely to appear here until Wednesday morning.

Posted at 11:20 AM by Howard Bashman



“Trump’s judge picks: ‘Not qualified,’ prolific bloggers; But Republican senators still get on board.” Seung Min Kim of Politico.com has this report.

Posted at 11:03 AM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Elena Kagan talks about life on the Supreme Court during Chicago appearance”: Steve Schmadeke of The Chicago Tribune has this report.

Posted at 11:00 AM by Howard Bashman



“Justice Sotomayor motivates law students to embrace difference”: Michael Ortiz and Jill Leavey of The Hofstra Chronicle have this report.

Posted at 10:53 AM by Howard Bashman



“Trump and McConnell See a Way to Make Conservatives Happy”: Carl Hulse has this new installment of his “On Washington” column online at The New York Times.

The installment begins, “Stymied legislatively, President Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell are turning their attention to one way they can skirt Democratic roadblocks and mollify unhappy Republicans — by filling scores of federal court vacancies.”

Posted at 10:50 AM by Howard Bashman



“It’s a Fact: Supreme Court Errors Aren’t Hard to Find; A ProPublica review adds fuel to a longstanding worry about the nation’s highest court: The justices can botch the truth, sometimes in cases of great import.” Ryan Gabrielson of ProPublica has this report.

Posted at 10:45 AM by Howard Bashman



“To Become a Better Appellate Lawyer, You Should Read This Book”: This month’s installment of my “Upon Further Review” column appears in today’s edition of The Legal Intelligencer, Philadelphia’s daily newspaper for lawyers.

My column this month focuses on the brand new Third Edition of “Winning on Appeal: Better Briefs and Oral Argument,” by Tessa L. Dysart, Leslie H. Southwick, and Ruggero J. Aldisert. The book also includes a foreword by Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. I received my copy in the mail last week.

Posted at 10:14 AM by Howard Bashman



View live, online today’s Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for D.C. Circuit nominee Gregory G. Katsas: Via this link. Among the unique challenges this nominee will face is whether confirmation can be attained even after listing my name in his answers to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s questionnaire.

And don’t change that channel even after Katsas has concluded his testimony, or else you risk being surprised down the road that a brand new federal district judge has the last name Beaverstock.

Posted at 9:54 AM by Howard Bashman



Constitutionsplaining with Justice Neil M. Gorsuch: Don’t miss Nina Totenberg‘s lengthy segment on this week’s installment of the First Mondays podcast.

In addition to discussing marijuana smoking, the partying habits of law school deans (in which interviewer Dan Epps describes a certain Harvard Law School faculty member in a manner that even I could identify), and the U.S. Supreme Court‘s recent gerrymandering oral argument, Totenberg dishes the gossip on the newest Justice.

Among the things Totenberg claims to have heard through the grapevine are: (1) Justice Elena Kagan and Gorsuch are having knock-down, drawn-out battles over the outcome of cases during the Court’s private conferences; (2) now that Gorsuch has joined the Court, he doesn’t really believe in precedent, notwithstanding that his firm belief in precedent was a major sales pitch at his SCOTUS confirmation hearings; and (3) Gorsuch simply isn’t as smart as had been depicted (IQ tests, anyone?).

Of course, all of this and more that Totenberg discusses with interviewer Epps could simply be dismissed as “liberal propaganda,” but it’s certainly worth a listen, because when it comes to behind-the-scenes SCOTUS insights, all we have is rumors.

Posted at 9:32 AM by Howard Bashman