This evening, I will be speaking to students with The Fund for American Studies. As is my usual custom with June trips to DC, I went to the Court for opinion hand downs. And, as per my usual custom, I rolled up to First Street around 9:20 a.m. Usually, the bar section is completely empty in June, but today was different. The officer at the front gate said there were more than 200 people seeking bar admissions today, and that I might not even get a seat. That was something I hadn't experienced before.
I was asked to wait in the cafeteria to see how many empty seats there would be in the bar section. Also waiting was John Coghlan of Torridon Law, who was there to see his sister get sworn in. (Fun fact: John was the first lawyer to argue in person at the Court after the COVID shutdown on October 4, 2021.) Thankfully, we were let upstairs shortly before 10:00. Only three bar members would be allowed in.
I was seated just as Justice Gorsuch began announcing the majority opinion in Hemani. That meant no opinions from Justices Jackson, Barrett, or Kavanaugh. As Gorsuch read the summary of the facts, it became clear he wasn't buying the government's "habitual" drunkard argument. He dropped a few laugh lines about how much John Adams and James Madison drank. The Fifth Circuit would be affirmed here. But not in the next case.
