More Advice From The Bench . . . Kozinski On Oral Arguments
On Tuesday, Judge Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (do I really need to clarify that) sat down with David Lat, Founder of Above the Law for a conversation about collegiality on the court and some interesting tips on oral argument.
The podcast of their conversation is available here. Or you can read a summary and excerpts here.
Following in the vein of yesterday's post with Scalia's comments on writing amicus briefs, Judge Kozinski offered an interesting tidbit of advice for oral argument -- Apparently judges don't appreciate having their own opinions cited back to them. Who knew?
Lat expressed surprise when Kozinski offered a practice tip for oral argument: never point out that the opinion you are citing was written by a member of the panel.
While the moderator suggested that judges might “like being buttered up,” Kozinski offered that he could not think of a single federal judge who enjoys having his own opinions cited to him.
“It’s not just gauche,” the judge said. “It looks like you’re trying to trap me with my own opinion.”
The only thing worse, he quipped, would be “telling Willie Fletcher that ‘this is something your mom said.’” Ninth Circuit Judge William Fletcher, a Clinton appointee, is the son of Senior Judge Betty B. Fletcher, a member of the court since 1979.
Kudos to ATL for the heads up.
