Success in the Supreme Court is hard to define because it can be viewed in a variety of ways. Few attorneys have the opportunity to try cases there and even fewer argue multiple cases. Part of success therefore is simply getting a case or cases to the Court. Once the Court agrees to hear a…
Tag: Oil States Energy Services v. Greene’s Energy Group
The Big Business Court
The current Supreme Court is unabashedly friendly towards big business. How friendly? If the Court’s trajectory continues, perhaps as friendly as any Court dating back to the Lochner-era where laissez-faire policies exuded from the Court’s rulings. Prominent scholars, most notably Epstein, Landes, and Posner found empirical support for the proposition that the current Court is more pro-business…
Not All Appeals Are Equal
Every year the lawyer research and ranking company Chambers & Partners (sometimes mentioned as C&P herein) puts out a list of top appellate lawyers and firms (in a previous post I looked at some of the listed firms’ cert performance). Chambers uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative methodology to come up with its various…
A Lot at Stake: Amicus Filers 2017/2018
Whether they know it or not, large sectors of the population have interests in the outcomes of Supreme Court cases. With cases dealing with issues ranging from voting rights to owner’s rights in retail sales, many people are affected outside of the immediate parties to each case. These diverse interests along with more specific interests…
Help a Justice Out
While Supreme Court justices are often guarded about how they come to their decisions, there are occasions where they are much more transparent. During oral argument, it is not uncommon for justices to bluntly say to an attorney “help me -” followed by a certain request. Instances where justices enlist attorneys’ help during oral argument present…
A Primer on The Government’s Participation Before the Supreme Court at the Start of the 2017 Term
On the Merits The most prolific player before the Supreme Court, the federal government through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), should have its hands full this year. As is often the case, the OSG is involved in a large portion of the term’s first set cases. Even before the term begins though the…
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