Appellate federal public defender. Alexandria, Va. Speaking only for myself; usual disclaimers apply.
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Well, my mom sent me her first "Check this out!" text with a pic of what I'm sure was Facebook a.i. slop. At least it was something innocuous (a new Oreo flavor) and not, like, Sydney Sweeney and the Geico gecko rescuing flood victims, but no doubt she's seeing crap like that all the time too.
Kind of like that goo in "Ghostbusters 2"
My clerkship started on the day after Labor Day, and it would have been wild if hers were the same and it was either the first or last thing her clerks did.
If you're up 47-0 at halftime and this kind of storm rolls in, I think it's a sign you should just cancel the rest of the game. (video from KLBK www.everythinglubbock.com)
This is every couple at a restaurant, where Taylor is like "Hmm, that looks good, I wonder what that is," and Travis is like "Oh, they got fajitas!"
📌
I saw Run-DMC once, and the opening act was The Sugarhill Gang
I'm as excited for this college football season as I have been for one in a long time, and this thread got me even more fired up.
And the hits keep coming this week with a little light identity theft!
It's like, "We're not going to do anything about the guns, so let's see if we can have a bunch more suicides too!"
I promise to be as physically inactive as necessary to qualify for this. And I puffed a cigar at a wedding 25 years ago, so I'm counting that as "former smoker."
Dem officials in 2028: "We should focus on kitchen table issues!" Voters: "Like how the National Police troops who are quartering in my home chopped up my kitchen table for firewood?"
Science Hill High School, alma mater of Steve Spurrier
Scanning too quickly and read this headline about a "Glut of Sargassum" as "Gulf of Sarcasm," and thought that's a good name for the difference between what people on here mean and how sensitive readers take it. And my stars, if we could bottle and sell that as fuel! www.wired.com/story/there-...
Took me a second to realize this wasn't about a car!
Saturday: Someone crashes into my parked car while I watched, not 60 seconds before I could have gotten in and pulled away without incident. Wednesday: Literally seven filings due in the Supreme Court. Thursday: Tooth hurting for a day or so, dentist fits me in; surprise root canal!
I read this in the voice of Troy McClure saying "They Came to Burgle Carnegie Hall," and it made me think that the mayor could be that kind of character: "Hi, I'm Eric Adams! You may remember me from such previous scandals as The Turkish Travel Tempest and the Banks Brothers Bribes!"
If you replace "flies" with "humans" here, it's basically the plot of "Event Horizon."
"Please -- 'Mr. Sundae' is my dad's name; call me 'H.F.'!"
Here's one for everyone who thinks that polling the jury is a waste of time www.cnn.com/2025/08/19/u...
There's also no amount of time or process that will stop these folks from saying "This was a rushed process that was rammed down our throats!"
Hear, hear! (not "here, here")
An excellent #Appellatejob has opened up, at the Georgetown Law's @immersionclinic.bsky.social. Really a great job for someone wanting to work in an appellate clinic, it seems to me. perma.cc/CX9E-NSEJ
You didn't have any repeats (unlike the original doofus), but you had enough Scot(t)s that it's in the same spirit.
Not the cheeriest movies, but you could do a lot worse for a double feature than "The Limey" and "The Hit." Stamp is excellent in "The Limey," and while "The Hit" is more of a showcase for John Hurt, Stamp is great in it and his last scene is stellar work. Changes the way you think of the whole film
A car pulling into a space whacked into mine today. The poor girl has only had her license about a week, so at least one of those "student driver" stickers is accurate. My car is a 2025 with 5K miles on it, so I was bummed. But hers was a 2026 BMW SUV, so her parents are probably even more bummed.
To be somewhat fair to these folks, there were captions in the body of the brief, but for whatever reason they didn't make it into the TOC. It was a multi-defendant (and multi-lawyer!) case with some solid arguments, but clearly some finer points of briefing and formatting were lost in all that.
What they meant was that the standards of review were set out alongside the individual arguments, rather than all at once in one place. What you'd normally list as: I. First Argument A. Standard of Review B. Whatever II. Second Argument A. Standard of Review B. Whatever
Scuba mask and snorkel
Lot of people posting about jury nullification right now. One thing to keep in mind: if you want to be on a jury, where you can hold the government to its burden or nullify when necessary, you have to be able to get on a jury. 1/
Slightly diminish a band: Spin Medical Students
I once had a case where the AUSA omitted spaces between cites to the joint appendix. So cites to pages 123 and 145 were written as "JA123,145" as if the JA was hundreds of thousands of pages. I'd rather delete a whole argument than take that shortcut.
If we have a resurrected country, does that mean we have a living Constitution?
"I'm an apprentice pamphleteer, and yon goody wife enjoys listening to harpsichord recitals. Our budget is an entire herd of cattle and a room full of gold. I want a fixer-upper, by which I mean floors and windows are optional. She frivolously demands a thatched roof rather than dung."
Is Vance able to cite even one actual Democrat who has opposed releasing this information?
*of course* there's a card to go to a "tropical island"
I'm not a huge Rush fan, but I do enjoy some of their stuff, and they were the first to come to mind for me.
Dean Cain is Vichy Superman.
This makes me wonder how long it will be before police officers create lineups with a real picture of the suspect and the prompt "create five identical copies of this picture," knowing that they will, at best, look kinda like the real guy.
Well, I don't know that "shadow" by itself explains anything either. "Non-argument docket" is literally true and highlights one of the worst features of those cases, but also covers the more routine matters that have always been handled without argument and decided via orders or per curiam opinions.
As I explained in my longer comment there, those few cases are more akin to traditional plenary cases (some of which could be called emergencies). And it would generally be a positive change if some of these matters were moved from non-argument to argument buckets.
I wrote a long comment to David's post suggesting "non-argument docket." Not as colorful, and wouldn't sell many books, but to me it's neutral and accurate and covers both routine and emergency cases. And it highlights what many see as the biggest problem with how the court is handling these cases.
Don't know how many times I've seen this movie, but seeing this image just now made me realize that Henry's shirt (with that pointy collar) is so out of date because he just got out of prison and hadn't had a chance to update his wardrobe yet.
I'm just imagining how incandescently angry Trump would be if they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to George W. Bush for establishing PEPFAR.
We took a tour of a federal prison when I clerked, too. I remember thinking that them SHU cells were incredibly small.
I know I'm ready for college football season when this idea gets stuck in my head enough that I decide to just go ahead and create it. @edsbs.bsky.social @celebrityhottub.bsky.social @stevengodfrey.bsky.social @alexkirshner.com @hollyanderson.bsky.social
Seems notable that the order refers to a section of the brief instead of just directing the parties to address whether Section 2 is constitutional. Not just issuing this order when they did, but seemingly obscuring what's at issue.
This is democracy manifest.
I'm in Florida for a couple of days, and I have to say: Between the heat, the humidity, the crowds, and the traffic, it's a genuine credit to the place that it isn't MORE messed up.
Are you a rising 3L or recent law grad and an aspiring public defender? Want great supervision and training? If so, consider applying for the E. Barrett Prettyman fellowship and come work with us. apply.interfolio.com/170321
The judge set bond at 10,000 game tickets
My first solo trip to NYC, I was 19, not very worldly (first time on a plane!), and it overwhelmed me. I wasn't really ready for an adult portion. I wasn't quaking in fear or anything, but it was just *a lot* to deal with. Every time I've gone back, though, I've liked it more.
There's a great bit in "The Last Waltz" where Arkansas boy Levon Helm talks about how New York City is "an adult dose," and the first time you visit, it kicks your ass a little bit, but when you heal up and come back, you fall in love with it. That's how I feel. youtu.be/09ejJvfTvt8?...
First time I can ever remember seeing a citation to the Lawyers' Edition reporter by itself (not as part of a parallel cite to the U.S. Reports or Supreme Court Reporter).
Me standing around the Blockbuster Video exhibit as actual adults who were somehow born in this century browse the New Releases.
All-time favorite in this genre is a prosecutor saying he didn't have an open-file policy because he'd "found in the past when you have information that is given to certain counsel and certain defendants, they are able to fabricate a defense around what is provided." Wolfe v. Clarke, 691 F3d at 423.
youtu.be/PZbqAMEwtOE?...
Something you learn when you go to the office on a weekend to print 16,000 sheets of paper: When the paper company says its "99.99% jam-free guarantee" means that it will not have more than one jam in 10,000 sheets, it basically guarantees you will get a jam if you're printing more than that.
Like that Simpsons episode where they briefly move to a planned community that showed off its "upgrades" to unsightly blight.
Was trying to think of a moniker for this as good as "Wakeyleaks," but couldn't come up with one. Decided it's good enough to just say it's like ACME telling the Roadrunner which device Wile E. Coyote is going to use to try to catch him this time.
Plus, as Rick Hasen pointed out the other day, the North Dakota Legislative Council was taking the position that some reps would instantly lose their seats when the Eighth Circuit's mandate issued. bsky.app/profile/rick...
Can't have it both ways! If that paralegal or associate slipped in made-up cases, the judge would sanction the partner for not catching it. So approve the partner's fees for getting it right the first time.
Good there here. Saw an order today from SDFL imposing sanctions on atty for using a.i. to make up cites, noting he blamed a paralegal. Same order questions other side's atty fees request, implying it's padded by having a partner do work a paralegal or assoc. could do. www.scribd.com/document/892...
The Blanche-Maxwell meeting is only the second-most important legal news out of Tallahassee today.
Athena: As a forehead daughter...
It will be a tight race between comments saying he was murdered and comments asking "Vaxxed??!!"
Pete Rose
If Canada was the 51st state, we might have had a filibuster!
From the other angle, you can see the coach did tell him to slide, but the third baseman did a great job to "deke" him by acting nonchalant, like he wasn't expecting a throw, until it was right there. bsky.app/profile/samm...
youtu.be/IyMP6lkz7Co?...
WSJ investigative technique
I'm just glad that text was centered on the page like some announcement from an athletic department that they have made a change in the leadership of the basketball program but thank the old coach for his service and wish him well in the future.
Here's a pleasant counter-example - after a PD's arrest for allegedly smuggling drugs into a jail, at least the news reported that he was cleared. www.nydailynews.com/2025/07/03/p...
Very much agreed. I'd rather be readable than right. Thanks for your time and feedback!
Right, thanks. It's somewhat important, but not crucial, to make clear the earliest event isn't happening in that trial, i.e., the trial court said it had noticed that some (prior) DUI cases had been charged as reckless driving, but this one wasn't.
So: (1) The Supreme Court said that the trial court had observed that the event had happened. Or (2): The Supreme Court said that the trial court had observed that the event happened. I guess writing it out now makes clear that the event obviously happened before the trial court noticed, right?
My quick example maybe wasn't the best. I'm talking about a Supreme Court decision that says the trial court said something had happened before the trial. So time A is that event, time B is trial court said it had happened, and time C is the (now past) S.Ct. decision saying the judge had noticed it.
he noticed, and it's also important to specify that the noticing happened before the present, i.e., that the blooming isn't happening simultaneous to the noticing. I know I can probably get away with omitting the second had, but I want to know if, essentially, pluperfect within pluperfect is right.
Quick grammar question: If I want to indicate that someone before a past event did something else before that past event, do I use past perfect tense twice? E.g.: Last week, he had noticed that the flowers had bloomed. For my purposes, it's important to specify that the blooming happened before
RIP Midnight Yell Practice at Texas A&M
More of a dog that didn't bark, and I know you mentioned Bondi's quid pro quo with Trump, but it's also interesting that she was Florida Attorney General for eight years after the federal plea deal and apparently never tried to see if there were any state crimes Epstein could have been charged with.
Dems can't get complacent here. Not sure how well the pollsters are tracking heavy GOP areas. But the GOP can run up huge margins in smaller counties in Southwest/Southside that offset solid Dem wins in bigger counties (e.g., Youngkin won Bedford by 5,000 more votes than McAuliffe won Loudoun).
@davidjroth.bsky.social Just noticed that NIGHT GAME (1989) is on Prime now. If you haven't seen it, it's like it was made for you: Roy Scheider investigates murders related to Houston Astros games. Not a great movie; there are like two subplots clearly edited out. But remember-some-guys-level fun.
Future job interviewer: "So starting in 2025 there's this weird gap on your resume that just has a single set of footprints?" Former ICE lawyer: "Yes, that was when Daddy Trump carried me."
@mdappeal.bsky.social Know anyone?
Maybe dumb question, but is Hyphy pronounced Hi-fee (rhymes with wifey) or Hi-fi (like wi-fi)? Or, god help us, with a hard p like Hippie?
Imagine being a defense attorney in the X-Files universe and how much fun it would be to cross-examine Agent Mulder. "Isn't it true, Agent, that you initially told your supervisors that you thought the crime had been committed by Bigfoot or the Jersey Devil or 'little green men from outer space'?"
Grok has filed for de-verification on biblical grounds.
I'm not deep into superhero lore, but I assume it's like one of those Magic Eye posters -- he has to stare at something *just right* to see through it.
Do I know any public defenders looking for work? The NM public defender is hiring, including for an appellate position.
I've seen that on the first play of a half before, but never that late in a game!
My guess is that this is a picture of the curtilage from Collins v. Virginia.
I just heard a story yesterday that Lincoln would feed his cats with a gold fork that belonged to Buchanan.
The Russian hockey player x-raying documents in a bathroom stall to "Slippery People" is a Schedule 1 controlled substance
Beat me to that joke, that's the first thing I thought of
Ozymandamus 