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9th Circuit Day, Part II

Or, more accurately, 9th Circuit Day made law.com via analysis of the Judges' behavior at oral argument in fajita-gate. (You can find a better recap of the argument and issue over at law.com, along with a pithy Noonan SFPD-as-buldogs-metaphor and a jab at Bybee's torture politics).

This 1L wants to know: beyond cooler-chat and bathroom reading,  how valid are inferences drawn from judges' reactions to and questions during oral argument? I mean, really. Is it realistic to try to read the transcript like tea leaves?  Or is it just too tempting to pass up the opportunity speculate?

As one rather clever Property professor recently quipped, "If you get no questions, either things are going really, really well, or really really poorly. And either way, you'll soon be drinking heavily."    

Full post as published by Nuts & Boalts on February 20, 2008 (boomark / email).