Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup December 8, 2017

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 a quick email at DReal@Creighton.edu or a message on Twitter (@Daniel_L_Real).

Supreme Court Opinions and News:

On December 4, 2017, the United States Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration’s travel ban to go into full effect. Lawrence Hurley has this report. The Court’s two orders can be found HERE and HERE.

On December 5, 2017, the United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which has dominated Supreme Court news this week. The audio from the oral argument can be found HERE, and transcripts of the oral argument can be found HERE. As expected the Court seemed divided over whether a cake was expressive content protected by the First Amendment. Nina Totenberg discussed the division during this segment on NPR. Cristian Farias, in this essay, argues that the issue in Masterpiece Cakeshop already has been decided against the shop owner. Rick Hills at the PrawfsBlawg argues that “respect for federalism’s role in defusing deep disagreements should lead the Court to affirm by deferring heavily to Colorado’s characterization of its purpose.” In this article at Vox, however, Douglas Laycock and Thomas C. Berg contend that the “Court can recognize a carefully defined right in the case of Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, and make room for both sides in the culture wars.” 

Appellate Practice Tips and Tools:

@blakeahawthorne shared this advice that Nellie Taft gave to her husband, Solicitor General William Howard Taft, about the length of his briefs.