« Judgment in Dobyns case | Main | Operation Choke Point creating a stir »

Busy day

The Jay Dobyns story hit Fox News. The arrogance of Justice Department is staggering. A judge rules that their attorneys are liars and perpetrated a fraud on the court, and bans them from his courtroom, and they challenge this, arguing the Attorney General has a "right" to send anyone he wants to court? In that position, would you really want those people to be the ones to argue for you? On the other hand, I did work ten years in the government, in Washington, DC, and did learn that the arrogance of Justice is, well, pretty breathtaking.

This morning I argued a first amendment case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; it was one of three cases argued. Video for the argument is here. Here's some local coverage of it.

The case was one of three argued that day. After listening for half an hour, I still couldn't figure out what the first argument was about, except that it involved somebody selling software. The third argument I almost understood, and it was chiefly distinguished by an attorney making a mis-step (not knowing that the Supreme Court had recently ruled on an issue) and having the court light him up with a flamethrower. "If you don't know that, then you shouldn't be standing here arguing."