Ladies and gentlemen, I present you: the 10 most-clicked-on CA3blog posts of 2018. My favorite was the argument-as-kabuki post (#6), and the most fun to do was the oral-argument compilation (#7).
1. Some thoughts on yesterday’s remarkable oral argument in the Philadelphia sanctuary-city appeal (November 8)
Katyal is one of the most accomplished Supreme Court advocates alive, and I hadn’t seen one of his arguments before, so I was eager to watch him in action. I left with my jaw on the floor.
2. Lawyer’s Third Circuit brief results in bar discipline (December 7)
3. Is Paul Matey’s Third Circuit nomination still on track? (August 18)
4. New opinion — an interesting debt-collection-suit win (February 12)
the counsel match-up was David vs. Goliath–a junior consumer lawyer against a past president of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers–and the junior lawyer won
5. Judge Vanaskie will take senior status (November 27)
6. Oral argument as kabuki (May 25)
Hitting the right tone for persuasive oral argument is like suppressing your impulse to talk over a judge. It’s not familiar or natural, and it’s not as easy as “respectful conversation.” Before you can begin to master it, first you have to decide to work at mastering it.
7. A bunch of good Third Circuit oral arguments (May 23)
8. The latest Third Circuit case statistics seemed to reveal a stunning transformation, but actually the data is useless (March 15)
9. The Third Circuit honors its newest judge, Stephanos Bibas (April 20)
There isn’t much glory in writing a circuit blog, but now and again it leads to wonderful things, and so it was yesterday when I had the privilege attending the investiture of the Third Circuit’s newest judge, Stephanos Bibas.
10. New opinion — Third Circuit clarifies the new-evidence standard for proving actual innocence (July 23)
To my surprise, two posts from previous years would have finished in this year’s top 10:
- Advice for new circuit clerks (2017)
- A closer look at the Third Circuit’s recent en banc cases (2015)
And the single least read post of 2018? I believe it was the deservedly ignored Due to snowstorm, today’s Third Circuit deadlines extended to tomorrow.
Happy holidays to all! And thank you for reading my nerdy little blog this year.