How Appealing



Tuesday, November 15, 2016

“Internet Giants Warn of Mass User Terminations If Recent Appellate Ruling Left Untouched; A 2nd Circuit rehearing is demanded in the MP3Tunes case”: Eriq Gardner has this post at the “THR, Esq.” blog of The Hollywood Reporter.

Posted at 9:04 PM by Howard Bashman



“A turning point for transgender rights?” Lyle Denniston has this post today at the “Constitution Daily” blog of the National Constitution Center.

Posted at 9:03 PM by Howard Bashman



“Pa. Supreme Court’s jail conversation ruling negates rape case recordings”: Paula Reed Ward of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has this report.

Posted at 8:17 PM by Howard Bashman



“Supreme Court ruling to cost public-safety pension trust $220M in refunds to members; The divided court upheld a Maricopa County Superior Court ruling that found a 2011 pension-reform law unconstitutional’: Craig Harris has this front page article in today’s edition of The Arizona Republic.

Posted at 8:10 PM by Howard Bashman



“The president-elect and the Supreme Court: Donald Trump says the law is settled on gay marriage but not on abortion.” Steven Mazie has this post today at the “Democracy in America” blog of The Economist.

Posted at 8:04 PM by Howard Bashman



“Barbra Streisand urges Obama to bypass Senate, appoint Supreme Court justice unilaterally”: Valerie Richardson of The Washington Times has this report.

Posted at 8:02 PM by Howard Bashman



“Trump’s Election Raises Host Of Issues For Supreme Court”: Nina Totenberg had this audio segment on this evening’s broadcast of NPR’s “All Things Considered.”

Posted at 7:56 PM by Howard Bashman



Seventh Circuit declines Wisconsin school district’s request for immediate appeal in transgender student’s restroom access case: You can access yesterday’s ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit at this link.

This matter is procedurally interesting because the district court initially certified its ruling for interlocutory appeal by permission, but then vacated that order before the Seventh Circuit had decided whether to accept the appeal. Under these circumstances, the Seventh Circuit held yesterday that it lacked jurisdiction to allow the appeal to proceed.

Posted at 1:42 PM by Howard Bashman



“Merrick Garland: What happens now?” Ariane de Vogue of CNN.com has this report.

The article’s first paragraph suggests that D.C. Circuit Chief Judge Merrick B. Garland won’t be returning to the task of judging cases in that court until January 2017. (My earlier uninformed musings on this topic can be accessed here). If that’s true, then here’s hoping he has plenty of credit card points and miles and hotel points saved up so that he can take some long overdue journeys to exotic locations over the next two months that there never was quite enough time to embark on given the daily grind. Maybe he will emerge back on the bench in January looking something like David Letterman in India (see the full video here).

Posted at 11:18 AM by Howard Bashman



“Will the Third Circuit start posting oral-argument video? Highlights from the Third Circuit’s Judges and Journalists program.” Matthew Stiegler has this very interesting post — in which “How Appealing” is mentioned — at his “CA3blog.”

Posted at 10:55 AM by Howard Bashman



Inside baseball — Third Circuit eliminates Option B for Appendix-filing: Without any fanfare and, to my knowledge, without any advance notice, on Wednesday of last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit issued an order eliminating Option B for filing the Appendix on appeal.

The immediate reaction of the vast majority of this blog’s readers is certain to be “Oh no, not Option B!” followed shortly thereafter by “What the heck is Option B anyhow?” The details of Option B can be found in this order that the Third Circuit issued on March 17, 2009. Among other things, Option B allowed one to exceed the word limits ordinarily applicable to principal briefs by 75 words (and presumably by 37.5 words in a reply brief).

In the six and a half-plus years that Option B has been in existence for Appendix-filing in the Third Circuit, I have used it, and have seen it used by opposing parties in appeals on which I am working, only on rare occasions. Chances are few readers of this blog will miss Option B, but if you are one of those who will, at least now you know it’s history.

Posted at 10:44 AM by Howard Bashman



“Confirm Merrick Garland, and end the partisan pettiness over the Supreme Court”: This editorial appears in today’s edition of The Los Angeles Times.

Posted at 8:44 AM by Howard Bashman