quote:
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Peter Nickles, Fenty's soon-to-be interim attorney general, described his legal team as the "superheroes of Supreme Court practice." Nickles fired Alan Morrison, who wrote much of the brief as counsel to former Attorney General Linda Singer, in late December.
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Originally posted by Toad
Must have fired him for doing such a good job on the brief as noted above.
The justices chose their own wording for what they want to decide in the Heller case.
What do you think the SC will say to DC's attorneys about not answering the question in the brief? You think the SC enjoys being snowed with unrelated blather instead of getting a direct answer to their question?
It will be interesting. You might want to research the actual question the SC posed in Heller; it will help you as this case unfolds I think.
Morrison, who has argued 20 cases before the high court, had been hired by then-AG Linda Singer, who resigned two weeks ago. Morrison suggested to the WaPo that he was fired as part of a feud between Nickles and Singer.
D.C.’s 15,000-word brief is scheduled to be filed with the Supremes tomorrow, reports the WaPo, and Morrison had already been practicing for oral argument. AG Nickles said yesterday that a team of lawyers helping with the case — including iPhone expert Tom Goldstein of Akin Gump and Walter Dellinger of O’Melveny (and Duke Law) — would remain on board. Nickles, who used to work at Covington, also hinted that he might employ the services of his former colleague Robert Long.
“The brief we are submitting is a "fabulous brief", a winning brief by a great team,” Nickles told the WaPo. “We will not miss a step. . . . Alan is a very good lawyer, but I decided to move in a different direction. It’s not as if one person is indispensable.” David Vladeck, a Georgetown Law professor and the brother of the suddenly ubiquitous NY employment lawyer Anne Vladeck, begs to differ. “This is a case that requires an unusual amount of preparation because one of the issues comes back to, ‘What did those folks who wrote the Bill of Rights really mean when they wrote the Second Amendment?’ ” Vladeck, a friend of Morrison, told the WaPo. “In addition to needing a good lawyer and appellate advocate, you need someone who has immersed himself in very complex historical sources. Alan has been doing that for two or three months by now. Whoever takes over this case will start many, many, many laps behind where we ought to be.”
"This is not something I sought or expected," Dellinger says, but he agreed to Nickles' offer, first made to him on Wednesday night, to help the city. Dellinger had never met Nickles before and says he does not know why Morrison was fired. "Alan is a truly exceptional lawyer," says Dellinger, adding that he hopes to "reach out" to Morrison for his insights on the case as he prepares for oral argument.
Your eyes must be brown Toad?
