Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup May 18, 2018

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[email protected] or a message on Twitter (@Daniel_L_Real).

Supreme Court Opinions and News:

The Supreme Court made news last week when issuing its opinion in Murphy v. NCAA, paving the way for states to individually legalize sports betting and striking down as unconstitutional a federal law that limited sports betting.  See the SCOTUSblog page on the case for a variety of entries and articles about the case and its potential impact:  HERE. 

Empirical SCOTUS took a look last week at the "state of the states" before SCOTUS, reviewing the issues that arose out of state courts during the prior term and how they were handled.  See the article HERE.

Bloomberg compiled a listing last week of the funniest moments from the Supreme Court's 2017 term.  Check it out HERE.

This past week marked the anniversary of Brown v. Bd. of Education, decided in 1954. 

Federal Appellate Court News:

Diana Murphy of the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the first woman to serve on an appeals court, passed away this past week at the age of 84.  Article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune HERE.

State Appellate Court News:

The New Mexico Supreme Court revisited a case this past week concerning the use of state funds to pay for textbooks for private schools, in a case that may provide the basis for rulings in similar cases in other jurisdictions.  Article HERE.

Practice Pointers and Tips:

A recent article in the Virginia Law Review addresses whether rules committees should have an amicus role cases where the Supreme Court has to interpret the federal rules that are largely drafted by the committees.  See Scott Dodson, Should the Rules Committees Have an Amicus Role?, 104 Virginia L.Rev. 1 (2018).