A fan page for Dahlia Lithwick, the rockingest Supreme Court columnist ever ever ever.
A confession?
I have a crush. On a woman I would not be able to identify, even if she were selling aquarium filters door-to-door. Which she wouldn't be, by the way. Because she's wonderful.
You may know her. Her name is Dahlia Lithwick, and our acquaintance has spanned three cities, three apartments and two houses, three jobs, and countless emocore albums. In a perpetually changing universe, her sweet, unerring "Dahlia Lithwick is a Slate senior editor" has been one of only a handful of fixed stars. No matter what case I am working on, what legal argument I am putting together, in the background there is always Dahlia.
This is for her.
(based on "The Faces of NPR," by Dahlia Lithwick)
Tuesday, November 26, 2002
will they stay or will the go?
Dahlia writes about the pundit's picks for who on the Court might be leaving soon. I'm hoping no one, because of a few potential cases I know about that depend on this balance. But I dunno. I'm terrible about these things. (I thought the Supreme Court would never grant cert on Bush v. Gore.)
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
sex toys, lingerie, and trademark dilution
Hey, it's Dahlia's discussion of the Victoria Secret's case. I remember this case from when it was up for en banc before the 6th Circuit---not because of any of its legal ramifications, but because Maureen, my coclerk, took up a significant proportion of one morning's meeting time in order to discuss in sordid detail the juicy snippets she gleaned from the en banc petition.[*]
I really do wish I'd heard the Bugweiser line.
On the other hand (and here I go off on a terrible non-Dahlia tangent), I just heard the most hilarious argument ever before the D.C. Circuit today! My friend Kathy was arguing an arroyo toad Commerce Clause case (similar to the cave bug Commerce Clause case I'd just argued), before Judges Ginsburg,[**] Garland, and Edwards, and the judges' questions and bizarro hypotheticals to the other side (and to Kathy) just had us almost in tears! (The point is, I'm okay about missing Victoria's Secret.)
I did have a favorite section of Dahlia's Victoria's Secret narrative:Responds Dellinger, "For those of us who live in NASCAR country, Chevrolet has more value than Rolls-Royce." He goes on to add that 39,000 Victoria's Secret catalogs were distributed in Elizabethtown, Ky., in 1998. Rehnquist is shocked. "Thirty-nine thousand catalogs? What's the population of Elizabethtown?"
Dellinger, uncertain, turns to Higgins.
"Four," says Higgins.
"He says four," answers Dellinger.
Maureen woulda loved to have been there.
[*] Why did I never get a case or en banc petition with juicy facts? Oh yes, I guess I did get the same-sex ball-grabbing harasser case...
[**] No, no comments about Judge Ginsburg and toads. Really.
Wednesday, November 06, 2002
torn loyalties
On one hand, Dahlia is still pretty funny in her latest article on Slate, which is all about the asbestos case that got argued today. On the other hand, she mocks Prof. Lazarus and Sean's side (both writing and one arguing on behalf of the plaintiffs).
Amusing line:If I were arguing today I'd be scared of these people. Of course I'll probably never get to argue a case before the court because, increasingly, the same eight appellate lawyers argue every single case. They are like the Supreme Court's own Harlem Globetrotters.
I was there, btw. I didn't think either Carter Phillips or Richie Lazarus did as good a job as they could've. Mr. Phillips made some weird slipups (as Dahlia notes), and Richie(*) talked too fast. But gosh I love him anyways. The exchange between Richie and Justice Breyer was fab.
(*) He really does go by Richie! I'm trying to get used to it, as I'm perfectly fine calling his older brother, who I work with now, Billy.
Tuesday, November 05, 2002
wow
Erwin Chemerinsky was the lawyer arguing for Andrade? He saved my life in Fed Courts.
