Yesterday’s New York Times contained a column by Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court of the United States, entitled “Are Oral Arguments Worth Arguing About?”  That column makes the point that, ultimately, whether an appellate oral advocate delivers his or her oral argument seamlessly matters far less than the merits of the case. 

The specific context of the column was criticism in some quarters of the quality of the oral argument mad

Even Justice Holmes, one of the greatest Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, sometimes made extremely bad decisions.  Eighty five years ago today, in Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200 (1927), Justice Holmes, joined by all other Justices except one, issued perhaps his worst ruling as a Justice.  A gathering of legal scholars last year rated Buck v. Bell as one of the five worst Supreme Court of the United States decisions ever. 

Carrie Buck was, as

Mohamad v. Palestinian Authority, ___ U.S. ___ (2012).  When Justice Alito spoke at the last Third Circuit Conference, he said that most of the Supreme Court’s work does not deal with constitutional issues.  Rather, most cases involve statutory interpretation.  Some of those cases are easier than others.  This case was one of those.

Plaintiffs’ de