SCOTUSblog recently posted a piece about a recent SCOTUS order appointing an attorney to brief and argue a case in defense of a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit because the federal government declined to do so (Justices appoint former clerk to argue First Step Act cases). Procedurally, this reminded…
A “focus order” is an order from the court to the parties directing them to focus their upcoming briefing and argument on specified issues. The Michigan Supreme Court routinely includes “focus” instructions in its argument orders. For years, the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers has found the focus order tool to be positive and productive…
Three justices wrote when the Michigan Supreme Court released Thursday’s 62-page decision in Shareef El-Jamaly v Kirco Manix Const (164902-4). Justice Welch penned the 32-page majority (joined by Justices Bernstein, Cavanagh, and Bolden). Chief Justice Clement filed a 3-page opinion that concurred and dissented in part. Justice Zahra authored a 27-page dissent (joined by Justice…
Four justices wrote when the Michigan Supreme Court released today’s 93-page decision in People v Loew (164133). Chief Justice Clement penned the 29-page lead majority (joined by Justices Zahra and Viviano). Justice Welch filed a 31-page opinion that concurred and dissented in part (joined by Justice Cavanagh). Justice Bolden wrote for herself in a 15-page…
A divided Michigan Supreme Court released its 39-page decision in People v Warner (163805) last Thursday. I deleted the Syllabus pages and put Claude.ai (a next-generation AI assistant) to work on the majority and dissenting opinions by creating tables showing the areas of disagreement and agreement. Here is the prompt: Create a three-column table that outlines the key…
A divided Michigan Supreme Court released its 32-page decision in People v Samuels (164050) on Friday. I deleted the Syllabus pages and put Claude.ai (a next-generation AI assistant) to work on the majority and dissenting opinions. First, I asked Claudi.ai to outline the decision using this complex prompt: Draft an opinion outline of the attached…
The 12th Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary was released early last month. Chief Editor Bryan A. Garner and publisher Thomson Reuters highlight that 2,500 new terms have been added to the more than 70,000 law-related words and phrases. Thousands of Latin maxims also make their debut. Plus, every page has been supplemented and revised. Price:…
Michigan Court Rule 2.003 concerns the disqualification of a judicial officer and applies to Michigan Supreme Court Justices. Subparagraph(C) outlines the grounds for when a judicial officer may not be able to preside over a matter. (C) Grounds. (1) Disqualification of a judge is warranted for reasons that include, but are not limited to, the following: (a) The…
Today, the Michigan Supreme Court issued a split opinion in People v Prude (Docket 165664)—a case that was decided without oral argument. Because users can now attach files with their “prompts” when using the free versions of the generative AI tools Claude.ai and ChatGPT, I decided to take each for a spin to outline the…
July 31 ends the Michigan Supreme Court’s 2023-2024 term. Legal beagles are looking forward to how the Court will resolve the remaining 39 matters. Below are summary snapshots of what remains in play.