Recently in Court News Category

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Smith does not like hearing that judicial review is "unprecedented."

Judge Smith was clearly irked when President Obama commented on Monday, "I'm confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected Congress."

So he gave the Justice Department a homework assignment while hearing oral arguments for Physician Hospitals of America vs. Sebelius, a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals challenge to the Affordable Care Act.

The task? Submit a three-page, single-spaced letter on judicial review by noon Thursday.

Diesel exhaust is bad for you. Allegedly.

If you hadn't already guessed that based on the fact that diesel exhaust is a smelly cloud -- and smelly clouds are generally hard on the lungs -- then you should thank the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for green-lighting the release of a study (20 years in the making) from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals judge Jerry Smith indicated yesterday that the Texas primary election scheduled for April 3 will likely be delayed because the Texas redistricting map conflict has not been resolved, reports The New York Times. While a new date has not been set, the court asked the Democratic and Republican parties to propose new candidate filing periods for a May 29 primary.

As the primary date continues to move, Texas could either become a kingmaker, or completely irrelevant in the Republican nominating process.

While most lawyers used the final week of 2011 to deplete their paid-time-off reserves, watch NFL games, and cheer for their favorite college teams in bowl games, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals was busy issuing opinions.

In an attempt to get you caught up with the latest and greatest in the Fifth Circuit, we're going over a few of the highlights from the last week:

After serving 5 years of a 24-year sentence, former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling wants another day before the Supreme Court.

Skilling was convicted in 2006 of conspiracy, securities fraud, making false representations to auditors, and insider trading associated with the Enron collapse. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed his convictions in 2009, but the Supreme Court invalidated one of the grounds of Skilling’s conspiracy charge - honest-services fraud - and kicked the case back to the Fifth Circuit in 2010.

It was a Halloween surprise for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. President Obama's Fifth Circuit nominee Stephen Higginson managed both a trick and a treat on Monday, as he won a unanimous confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate.

As we mentioned in early October, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved Higginson's nomination in July, but there was debate as to whether the full Senate would take up D.C. Circuit nominee Caitlin Halligan's vote before considering Higginson because Halligan was ahead in the vote queue.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals may have to continue waiting for the Senate to confirm Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Higginson’s nomination to the bench due to delays in a D.C. Circuit nominee’s confirmation process.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Higginson’s nomination on July 14, but Caitlin Halligan, a nominee for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, is ahead of Higginson in the vote queue. The Senate, however, could agree to hear Higginson’s nomination first; Halligan is expected to encounter Republican opposition, whereas Higginson has enthusiastic bi-partisan support from Senators Mary Landrieu and David Vitter, reports The Times-Picayune.

The cost of litigating in appellate courts will soon increase.

The Judicial Conference of the United States recently adopted a new court fee schedule in response to inflationary expenses. Court filing fees were last increased in 2003. Fee increases will become effective November 1, 2011.

Judiciary fees allows it to reduce the branch's annual appropriations request to Congress. Fees in appeals, district, and bankruptcy courts are affected. The increase is expected to yield an estimated $10.5 million in additional fee revenue for fiscal year 2012. The new Miscellaneous Fee Schedule is available here.

It's not-so-secretly the highlight of our day when a judge takes a bumbling lawyer to task in an opinion. That's probably because we're cozily nestled behind our computers writing about the law, unafraid of incurring a judge's ire in the courtroom.

But when a judge has words with, or rather for, another judge, it's even better. To wit: Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Edith Jones, does not enjoy reviewing snarky opinions on appeal.

Chief Judge Jones recently sent an email to U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks of Austin, Texas regarding his sarcastic comments on the job, saying, "Frankly, this kind of rhetoric is not funny. In fact, it is so caustic, demeaning, and gratuitous that it casts more disrespect on the judiciary than on the now-besmirched reputation of the counsel," reports ABA Journal.

Beyoncé tells us that it's girls who run the world.

The repetitiveness of Miss B's declaration over the course of four minutes at the gym this morning prompted us to consider who really runs a number of different institutions, like Congress, dog shows, child beauty pageants, and the DMV.

At least we know who runs the federal courts: clerks. Sure, judges make the decisions, but clerks do the legwork on most opinions. A federal clerkship is an opportunity to leave an indelible mark on justice... just without your name anywhere to be found.