You may already know that the department of justice's successful efforts to bar the Texas abortion law were led in the District Court by LISA NEWMAN, ESQUIRE. See AND LISA NEWMAN SHALL LEAD TEN OF THEM .... If you do not already know that, look for tomorrow's article here as well.
The doj's success was fleeting, though. Texas won the initial skirmish on appeal. A motions panel in the appellate court, which means a panel of judges that was gathered together to hear motions in all the appeals pending in the appellate court, granted Texas' motion to lift the District Court's injunction of the Texas law in this case, as we reported in an article here on Saturday, October 9, 2021.
Technically, the motions panel only granted a motion to stay the injunction in this case, in other words, to keep the Texas abortion law in place, for so long as it may take for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to decide the motion. See FIFTH CIRCUIT MOTION PANEL ORDER REINSTATING TEXAS ABORTION STATUTE FOUND!, posted here on Saturday, October 9, 2021.
In reality, of course, this is the Fifth Circuit. Things are looking grim for the doj. The department of justice needs to maximize its chances of reaching the judges who sit on the Fifth Circuit, which covers Texas, if the United States is going to have any chance of prevailing on the merits of this case on appeal.
The doj replaced the successful trial lawyer, LISA NEWMAN, on the appeal. That is not unusual, that an appellate lawyer at a big firm, or in this case at the doj, comes in to handle an appeal rather than the trial lawyer who won the case. In this particular case, it should be noted that NEWMAN is from Texas, went to the University of Texas undergrad, and then went to the prestigious University of Texas Law School. The judges on the Fifth are likely to listen to her.
Or they would have been. Ms. NEWMAN has been replaced on appeal with one DANIEL WINIK, ESQUIRE. He signed the USA's Opposition to Stay which was filed a day ahead of the deadline. (Sorry I cannot provide a copy of it here as the blogging platform, Typepad, could not download it to this blog which is a first. Suffice it to say that Mr. WINIK's memorandum opposed the idea of a stay in the Fifth Circuit which would necessarily reinstate the Texas abortion law.)
MERRICK GARLAND, did someone tell you this is a good decision, removing the successful trial lawyer from the appeal? Just asking for the country.
Mr. WINIK is a White male who went to Yale. Good luck relating to the judges down in the Fifth Circuit. Not extremely likely that they'll listen to you, Mr. WINIK, but maybe. Time will tell. Not a winning strategy on appeal, in any case.
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