Praise for a Supreme Court Novice

In today's ruling in Greenlaw v. United States, the Supreme Court sided with a defendant who argued that an appeals court cannot on its own motion increase a defendant's sentence without being asked to do so by the government. But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had kind words nonetheless for the lawyer who lost the case: Jay Jorgensen, a partner at Sidley Austin. In a rare reference to an advocate by name, she said Jorgensen "has well fulfilled his assigned responsibility."

You might be wondering: Why did a Sidley lawyer argue a case for the United States? As we reported here in April, Greenlaw was one of those very rare cases in which the government decided it no longer wants to defend the decision below. It agreed with its adversary on the issue at stake. In such cases, the Court appoints a private lawyer, almost always a former high court law clerk, to present the orphaned argument. Jorgensen, a former clerk to Justice Samuel Alito Jr., was tapped in Greenlaw and handled his debut before the court deftly.

Ginsburg apparently has a soft spot for lawyers who take on this duty pro bono. In Clay v. United States, a 2003 case in which the Court appointed David DeBruin of Jenner & Block, a former clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens, to argue under similar circumstances, she wrote that his "able advocacy permits us to decide the case satisfied that the relevant issues have been fully aired."