Here are some words & phrases that you really don't want a judge to apply to anything you file: sprawling behemoth surplusage larded with brims with masquerading as voluminous breathtaking madness chokes the docket intended to overwhelm labyrinthian prolixity of…
I was pleased to see that far more respectable personage Prof. Eugene Volokh also noticed and commented yesterday on Justice Kagan’s use of “way” as an adverb in the Omnicare case. (I mentioned it at the end of this post.) It was…
Here's a more interesting decision by the Supreme Court, although maybe "decision" is the wrong word. The question is: if your client insists on filing something that is complete gibberish, do you have to agree, or do you have an…
Surely, not since “Holy $h*t, Man Walks on #&*ing Moon” has there been such a riveting headline, but hey, I noticed this and here it is. This is my three-thousand-three-hundred-and-fifty-first post, cut me some slack here. The Omnicare opinion released today…
"Few statutes have proven as enigmatic as 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)," says the Tenth Circuit to kick off its opinion in United States v. Rentz. Hard to see what it's complaining about: (c) (1) (A) Except to the extent that a…
A statement in a judicial opinion that isn't necessary to the holding is called a dictum (pl. dicta), and isn't technically binding (though it may or may not be persuasive). Here's a good example of that from a 1976 federal case (thanks,…
The Court was planning to hear his case, but now it can't find him. Of course there are lots of Bobby Chens out there, but the Court is interested in the Bobby Chen who filed this petition for certiorari (via SCOTUSblog) that…
There are many great lines Justice Fergus O’Donnell’s opinion in R. v. Duncan (2013), which was an otherwise unremarkable case except that the defendant tried to run one of those “sovereign citizen” defenses up the flagpole. That didn’t go so well:…
I really have no idea, but this seems perfectly acceptable to me: I suppose you might also be wondering, "In what situation might I feel compelled to cite an animated action figure as an authority in one of my briefs?"…
Above the Law reports that someone, or multiple someones, sent it a copy of a confidentiality agreement that one member of a law-school study group apparently proposed to the others. Why does a study group need a confidentiality agreement? Well, it…