TROLP Has Published My 2024 Jurist of the Year Address

I offer five tips on how you can get a TROLP bobblehead.

In April of 2024, I was deeply honored when the Texas Review of Law & Politics selected me as the jurist of the year. I uploaded audio of my remarks here. TROLP has now published my essay. Here is the abstract:

Let's do a survey of the 25 TROLP jurists of the year who came before me. There were two Supreme Court Justices: Scalia and Thomas. There were ten lower-court federal judges: Jones, Starr, Smith, Owen, Garwood, Pryor, Willett, O'Connor, Elrod, and Ho. There were four Senators: Cornyn, Lee, Cruz, and Cotton. There were three Solicitors General: Olson, Coleman, Clement. There were two Attorneys General: Meese and Abbott. There was only one law professor who was jurist of the year: Lino Graglia, a giant in the law, who received the award when he was eighty years old.

Then there's me. I'm not a judge, and I don't consider myself a jurist. I've never held any appointed or elected governmental position. I am not, nor have I ever been, an "officer of the United States." I've never argued a case before the Supreme Court, or any appellate court for that matter. I did not attend and do not teach at an elite law school. To quote another classic piece of American pop culture, Sesame Street, "One of these things is not like the other." Relatedly, I think my TROLP bobblehead is the first one with curly hair.

So, why am I up here? I'm still not entirely sure. But I'd like to use my brief time at this podium to convey a message: this can be you. If I can be up here, so can you. To state the issue more bluntly, I don't want to be the only one up here. I want each and every one of you to find your path to this stage. As I'll explain, it will not be easy. There will be many forces pushing back against you. There is no glidepath to getting your very own bobblehead. But I am ready to help. Indeed, I try by word and deed to model the behavior it takes to get up here. If you'll indulge me, let me offer five tips.

I hope these remarks are helpful to future jurists of the year.

Comments

[Frank Drackman]

You know what they call the last in his class in Med School?,
"Doctor"
and somewhere, the Very Very Wrong Reverend Arthur Kirtland is rolling over in his grave (or bed, but I'm betting grave)
Prepare for the onslaught of epithets, insults, from the losers on this blog, I'll only make the observation that men who are fortunate to still have hair into middle age usually do the least with it

Frank

[ScottK]

Properly educated lawyers don't care about the fringe.

[шинка]

Love the Bobblehead! There is no greater recognition than a Bobblehead.

[CJColucci]

My pharmacist has a bobblehead. At least he is a useful person.

[y81]

O good Lord.

[Stephen Lathrop]

But I'd like to use my brief time at this podium to convey a message: this can be you. If I can be up here, so can you.

Thank you. I will keep that in mind while I evaluate WTF you could possibly mean by, "here."

[Stuart]

I think it is neck and neck between you and Trump for the new Pope!

[Dan Schiavetta]

It should be someone else on this site -- founder Eugene, ideally -- who posts this news about Josh. It shouldn't be Josh himself.

[apedad]

HEY PROF. BLACKMAN - writing an article like this would improve your standing: Shadow Docket Workload Threatens to Delay Supreme Court Opinions

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/shadow-docket-workload-threatens-to-delay-supreme-court-opinions

[Brett Bellmore]

So, did they get a discount on bobble heads if they ordered some minimum number of designs?

[JoeFromtheBronx]

Although some right-wing commentators have made noise about Justice Jackson taking three days to call for a response (and then giving the respondents a week within which to respond), there are lots of reasons why it might take the justices a couple of days to sort out whether to do so. To take two examples from earlier this term, in the probationary employees’ case, Justice Kagan called for a response three days after the application was filed. And three days was also the amount of time that elapsed in January between the Biden administration’s application in the Corporate Transparency Act case and Justice Alito’s call for a response. As for claiming that a week is an unusually long response period, (1) that’s just not true historically; (2) three different justices gave the respondents in the birthright citizenship cases 22 days to respond; and (3) the extent to which the Court is inundated with these requests may also be pushing the justices toward longer windows.

https://substack.com/inbox/post/162835374

[Frank Drackman]

Almost could be Roger Daltrey circa 1975 in his “Tommy” period

Frank “That hearing/speech/vision impaired kid sure plays a mean Pinball”

[Tom O'Brien]

You said it wrong. It's "that kid with speech\hearing\vision deficits". I actually believe these things matter. I acknowledge that speech Nazis are annoying; but you brought it up.

[rloquitur]

Edith Jones voted against La Gordiloca. She should be nowhere near that list.