Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup Saturday, February 18, 2022

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 a quick note to either (1) Dan Real at DReal@Creighton.edu or on Twitter @Daniel_L_Real or (2) Catharine Du Bois at DuBoisLegalWriting@gmail.com or on Twitter @CLDLegalWriting.

US Supreme Court Opinions and News

• The Supreme Court is set to review whether the Biden administration can end the former administration’s “Remain in Mexico” border policy. After challenges from Texas and Missouri, a Texas US District Court ruled against the attempt to end the policy, ordering that the policy must remain in place. The Court will likely hear argument in Biden v. Texas, et al. in April. See reports from CNN, The Hill, and Roll Call.

• The Library of Congress and the Supreme Court Fellows program posted this video of the February 17 program, titled “The 2022 Supreme Court Fellows Program Annual Lecture with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.”

• New York University School of Law hosted the “Inaugural Robert A. Katzmann Lecture: A Conversation with Justice Sonia Sotomayor.” Find the conversation between Justice Sotomayro and Dean Trevor Morrison here.

Appellate Court Opinions and News

• The Fifth Circuit reversed a district court’s denial of an injunction in a case brought by United Airlines employees challenging United’s vaccine mandate. The original petition sought to enjoin the vaccine mandate and the petition was denied. The court ruled that employees may indeed suffer irreparable harm from the vaccine mandate. The Fifth Circuit did not grant the injunction but remanded the case for consideration of other factors. The ruling became a topic of interest this week more for the scathing dissent than for the ruling itself. Judge Smith’s dissent included the following:

  If I ever wrote an opinion authorizing preliminary injunctive relief for plaintiffs without a cause of action, without a likelihood of success on the merits (for two reasons), and devoid of irreparable injury, despite the text, policy, and history of the relevant statute, despite the balance of equities and the public interest, and despite decades of contrary precedent from this circuit and the Supreme Court, all while inventing and distorting facts to suit my incoherent reasoning, “I would hide my head in a bag.” Perhaps the majority agrees. Why else shrink behind an unsigned and unpublished opinion?

  See the ruling and reports from The Associated Press, Courthouse News Service, and The National Law Journal. There was also a well-followed thread on Twitter.

• California Governor Newsom has nominated Patricia Guerroro to the state’s supreme court. If confirmed, she will be the first Latina to sit on the court.  See reports from The Los Angeles Times, NBC News, and The San Francisco Chronical.