Monday, March 05, 2007

From moot court to mute court?

Today's daily journal update includes a pair of orders denying law students' motions to orally argue cases as amicus curiae. United States v. Moran, __ M.J. ___, No. 06-0207/AF (C.A.A.F. March 1, 2007) (order allowing Georgetown University Law Center Appellate Litigation Program and Washington College of Law students leave to file amicus briefs but denying motions to present oral argument); United States v. Lewis, __ M.J. ___, No. 07-5002/AR (C.A.A.F. March 1, 2007) (order allowing Georgetown University Law Center Appellate Litigation Program to file amicus briefs but denying motion to present oral argument).

The Lewis order indicates that the government opposed the students' motion to participate as amicus, but no such opposition is noted in the Moran order. As some of my previous posts suggest, I'm not a fan of law students participating in oral arguments; I believe such faux amicus arguments detract from CAAF's central mission of deciding cases justly. So I hope the Lewis and Moran orders reflect a policy shift by the court.
Posted by Dwight Sullivan at 11:25 PM

2 comments:

guardlaw west said...

As the sage CAAFlog has again led the conversation to issues of appropriateness [note my clever digression], I am offering for consideration the most fascinating and amusing article forwarded to me by a member of the military judiciary. [Said honorable judge shall remain unidentified for obvious reasons.]

Behold @ 37 Golden Gate U.L. Rev. 219, the article "The Entitlement of Chimpanzees to the Common Law Writs of Habeas Corpus and De Homine Replegiando". This article shows clearly that the chimpanzee, being presumed to "common law personhood", has more options than the average service member and certainly more than the defendants in MC proceedings.

Tue Mar 06, 09:43:00 PM EST
Dwight Sullivan said...

Here's the order to which Gene refers:

No. 06-0591/AR. U. S. v. Harvey A. GARDINIER II. CCA 20020427. On consideration of the motion filed by Bruce A. Antkowiak, Esq., Assistant Professor of Law, Duquesne University School of Law, to appear pro hac vice, and motion for leave to file amicus brief out of time and to permit the appearance and presentation oral argument by law students, it is ordered that said motions are granted, and that Amicus Curiae will be allotted 10 minutes to present oral argument.

I recommend that the CAAF Rules Advisory Committee -- of which Gene was formerly the long-serving chairman -- address this issue to give the CAAF judges an opportunity to bring clarity to the question of law students orally arguing cases as amici.

Fri Mar 09, 12:58:00 AM EST

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