Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup March 15, 2019

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 at [email protected] or a message on Twitter @Daniel_L_Real.  You can also send emails to Danny Leavitt at [email protected] or a message on twitter @Danny_C_Leavitt.

Supreme Court News:

Nina Totenberg offers this book review about First, Sandra Day O'Connor. The book purports to break new ground with O'Connor's papers, journals, and her husband's diary. 

Happy birthday to Justice Ginsburg who turns 86 today. Tony Mauro of National Law Journal has this piece, and apparently Justice Ginsburg followers will show their following of the justice by planking in front of the Supreme Court today 

Federal Appellate Court News and Opinions:

 In a sixth-circuit, three-judge panel Judge Sutton authored an opinion about free speech. An officer in the case stopped a driver for speeding. After giving the driver a warning, the officer noticed the driver raised her middle finger as she drove off, so the officer again pulled the driver over within a hundred yards of the first stop and gave her the speeding ticket. Judge Sutton reasoned "As alleged, the first stop had ended, a constitutionally significant event, before the officer initiated the second, unjustified stop. The Supreme Court has said that any justification for the first stop ceases when that stop ends." In effect, the judge concluded, there was no justification for the second stop. And, importantly, the court found "Any reasonable officer would know that a citizen who raises her middle finger engages in speech protected by the First Amendment."

State Appellate Court News and Opinions:

The Connecticut Supreme Court handed down an opinion (slip opinion here) authorizing the families of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting to proceed against the  makers of the AR-15-style Bushmaster to try and hold them liable. The court's ruling was 4-3, agreeing with the lower court that the case cannot proceed based on a variety of theories, but that it could proceed despite federal protection on wrongful marketing claims. Read more about the opinion at the New York Times and the Washington Post. 

North Dakota Supreme Court Justice McEvers plays the bagpipes in her chambers. Read about it here. 

@ArizonaAppeals tweeted about Arizona Court of Appeals' recent ruling over the dispute of what to do with frozen embryos when parents disagree, holding that the balance of interest goes to the mother. The opinion is here.

Appellate Job Opportunities:

Texas is looking for an Assistant Solicitor General.