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The Weekly Roundup

By Catharine Du Bois

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Each week, the Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup presents a few tidbits of news and Twitter posts from the past week concerning appellate advocacy. As always, if you see something during the week that you think we should be sure to include, feel free to send Dan Real a quick email atDReal@Creighton.edu or a message on Twitter (@Daniel_L_Real). 

US Supreme Court Opinions and News:

  • Big news for lawyers appearing before the Supreme Court: Beginning Monday, lawyers will now have two minutes to talk without interruption by the Justices. New oral argument guidelines provide that “[t]he Court generally will not question lead counsel for petitioners (or appellants) and respondents (or appellees) during the first two minutes of argument.” More here.
  • The Supreme Court agreed to hear an abortion case considering the legality of a Louisiana law imposing restrictions on abortion doctors. Almost identical to the Texas law stuck by the Supreme Court in 2016, the Fifth Circuit upheld the Louisiana law in 2016, but it; the law was stayed pending appeal. Many sources have written about the possible implications, including the NYTimes, Reuters, NPR, Washington Post.
  • The Brennan Center for Justice, at New York University, is calling on the Supreme Court to formally adopt an ethics code to increase transparency about recusal decisions and to strengthen rules governing gifts to justices. More here.
  • Last week, Ruth Bader Ginsberg made her first public appearance following cancer treatment. She was honored at the University of Buffalo. More here.

Federal Appellate Court Opinions and News:

  • Last week, the federal appeals court in Washington ordered the Postal Service to roll back a 10 percent increase in the price of a first-class stamp. Opinion here. The increase took the stamp from 50¢ to 55—which¢; according to the NY Times Op-Ed writer Linda Greenhouse, it was the “biggest single increase in price by total cents since 1863.”  The court found that the increase violated the Administrative Procedure Act’s “requirement for reasoned decision making” and that the governed were entitled to a reason for official decisions beyond “because we say so.” Greenhouse’s Op-Ed here.
  • Ninth Circuit has upheld the Santa Monica’s ordinance banning short-term vacation rental, commonly called “Anti-Airbnb” laws. The ordinance prohibits most short-term vacation home rental and is one of the strictest in the country. More here. 
  • Tenth Circuit last week ruled that federal wage laws protect workers at state-licensed cannabis locations even though cannabis remains illegal in federal law. The court reasoned, “[c]ase law has repeatedly confirmed that employers are not excused from complying with federal laws just because their business practices are federally prohibited.” More here.