PJP FACULTY MEMBER LISA BLATT ON LESSONS SHE HAS LEARNED FROM HER CAREER OF ADVOCACY BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT

PJP Faculty member and Arnold and Porter partner Lisa Blatt, who has now gave a talk at the Chattaqua Institution in New York state last year on what she had learned in her years of advocacy before the Supreme Court. Her remarks, recently published in the popular law journal "Green Bag" . Below are some excerpts from her essay. A link to the complete text can be found here.

1) I learned that the Court will continue to change the meaning of the Constitution. Although all of the Justices have expressed the importance of judicial restraint, the Court inevitably makes new law every time it interprets the Constitution...

2) The Supreme Court is not the impetus for constitutional change – we are.

PJP FACULTY IN THE NEWS

Two members of the 2011 Peter Jennings Project faculty made news this past week.

Carter Phillips, who will argue the PJP moot court on March 5, was noted in The New York Times for his argument before the Supreme Court in two cases, General Dynamics v United States and Boeing Company v United States, which have been consolidated into one. The cases involve the "states secrets" privilege of the federal government, which was at the heart of a dispute over the scratched building of the Navy stealth aircraft the A-12 Avenger.

Lisa Blatt, who appeared at the 2010 PJP and will be a fulltime faculty member in 2011, also argued before the High Court. Her case involved the pharmaceutical company Astra USA which is fighting a claim by Santa Clara County, California that it was unfairly charged when Astra exceeded negotiated Medicaid price limits.

New Congress to Require All Bills to Cite Constitution

By Dr. Steve Frank

I heard from Publius 2.0 recently. He’s feeling bullish about 2011, expecting sales of The Federalist Papers to soar on Capitol Hill.

That’s because the incoming Republican House leadership – Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Rules Committee Chairman David Dreier, and Transition Team Chairman Greg Walden – have issued a Memorandum recommending that classic text to members of the 112th Congress and their staffs.

Read the full article here.

The Last Time Filibusters Threatened A Constitutional Meltdown

By Lyle Denniston

The Republicans’ frustration with Democratic filibusters of Bush nominees to appeals courts reached a new level in May 2005. The Republican Senate leaders announced that, if the filibusters continued, they would attempt a drastic procedure – one that soon would be called the “nuclear option” for its capacity to destroy the capacity of the Senate to work together at all.

Read the full article here.