Each week, the Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup presents a few tidbits of news and Twitter posts from the past week concerning appellate advocacy. As always, if you see something during the week that you think we should be sure…
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Tessa L. Dysart
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Judge Michael’s Brief-Writing Tips, Part 1
One of my exciting (yes, really) summer projects is to help with a Legal Writing textbook, including drafting a chapter on trial briefs. In looking at state and local rules on what trial briefs should contain, I found a great…
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All I Need to Know About Flow I Learned from Pink
We’ve all read legal writing that is stilted and choppy. Though it may not affect the validity of the arguments made, it does make reading uncomfortable and detracts from the writer’s ethos. While short sentences come in handy when seeking…
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The meaning of "and"
I am on a great American road trip for the next two weeks, so I am sharing this post on statutory interpretation from 2020. Almost three years ago, I posted about a statutory interpretation case out of the Washington Supreme…
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Reflections on the Originalism Debate
Admittedly, I was at a loss today about what topic to write about on this blog. But then I thought about the debate that I had with Robert Peck and Phillip Seaver-Hall regarding originalism. That debate was an example of…
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Courts are Regulating Generative AI for Court Filings. What Does This Mean for Legal Writers?
Courts are Regulating Generative AI for Court Filings. What Does This Mean for Legal Writers?
There’s been a flurry of court-initiated activity around using generative artificial intelligence (generative AI) to draft court filings. One court has sanctioned the misuse of OpenAI’s large language model, ChatGPT. Perhaps as a result, at least four more have issued orders regulating the use of generative AI in legal writing.
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Blast from the past–Cleaned up citations
I am teaching our first year writing class in the fall (for the first time ever!). So, when I am not wrangling kids or working on the Journal, I am organizing class materials. While I was reading our text, I…
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A Sur-Reply on Originalism
A Sur-Reply on Originalism The debate on these pages teaches lessons about arguing appeals. Most readers of this blog probably look for the practice tips and insights that are often discussed on this blog. Occasionally, though, contributors address more substantive…
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Summer Hallucinations, Plagiarism, and ChatGPT
Recently, I asked ChatGPT to write some poems about hallucinations. Why? In part, because it’s summer and I think watching ChatGPT create poems is fun. I also asked because I’ve been thinking about how to cover generative AI with my…
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Clerkship Transparency
Last week I saw an article on Law.com about the Legal Accountability Project, “a nonprofit focused on preventing harassment in the judiciary that is creating a database of reviews from former law clerks on their judges as managers and the…
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"We Are All Originalists": A Response to Robert Peck and Phillip Seaver-Hall
This post responds to Robert Peck and Phillip Seaver-Hall, two contributors to this blog. Before I respond, I would like to thank Robert and Phillip for responding to my post, and for a great discussion on constitutional interpretation. I respect…
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Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup Friday, June 23, 2023
Each week, the Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup presents a few tidbits of news and Twitter posts from the past week concerning appellate advocacy. As always, if you see something during the week that you think we should be sure…
Continue Reading Appellate Advocacy Blog Weekly Roundup Friday, June 23, 2023
"Well" and that personal touch
I recently read (well, listened to–thanks, Audible!) John McWhorter’s Words on the Move, which was excellent, as so many of his books are. One of his points really stuck with me and has come to mind several times when reading…
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Originalism’s Frailties: A Reply to Professor Lamparello
Last week, Professor Lamparello argued on this blog that “originalism, although not perfect, is the best method of constitutional interpretation.” I’m skeptical. Admittedly, in the vacuum of political theory, originalism has a certain elegance and persuasive force. The Framers created…
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Court opinions are more than soundbites
Like many of you, I read the Supreme Court’s recent decision in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, 143 S. Ct. 1142 (2023) very carefully. Not just because the dormant commerce clause is cool, but because the various opinions offer…
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Originalism, Not What It’s Cracked Up to Be
The quest for an interpretative construct that would produce principled decisions in construing the Constitution is an impossible dream, a chimera presuming that there lies a single best answer. The search for a singular approach that answers all questions seeks…
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