The Costa Method

Today, our hosts are thrilled to be joined by Federal Court of Appeals Judge Gregg ...

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Today, our hosts are thrilled to be joined by Federal Court of Appeals Judge Gregg Costa of the 5th Circuit. In today’s extra-nerdy pod, our esteemed guest gives Sarah and David his expert take on serial clerkships, amicus briefs, nationwide injunctions, and more. Plus, he offers up an inside scoop on how he approaches his judicial philosophy, what he thinks is the proper role for legal advocates in the courtroom, and why “the hardest job [he] ever had was before law school teaching fourth grade.”

Show Notes:

–Judge Costa’s case against second, third, and fourth clerkships

–Sarah’s Politico piece on serial clerkships

–Judge Costa’s piece on nationwide injunctions

–The Legal Analyst: A Toolkit for Thinking about the Law by Ward Farnsworth

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Comments (11)
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  1. Avatar photo
    Bill Dyer (aka Beldar)

    Excellent show, superbly worthy guest.

    When I clerked for Judge King (then surnamed Randall) in 1980-1981, that was the final year of the "Old Fifth" before GA, FL & AL split off into the new Eleventh Circuit. Among Judge King's opinions during my clerkship was Broad v. Rockwell Int'l Corp., an Old Fifth en banc securities fraud case that ended up being a 24/1 decision. If there's a single substantive opinion in which MORE Article III judges have ever concurred, I'm unaware of it. Link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5371866689814925030

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  2. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    Sarah, why were you fired from your job out of college? Maybe you’ve told the story elsewhere and I missed it. Also, is your father a bankruptcy judge?

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    1. Avatar photostaff-badge-circle
      Sarah Isgur staff-badge Staff

      Yes, my dad is a bankruptcy judge. As for why I was fired, I could give a self serving answer but the truth is that I was probably pretty obnoxious at 21 years old and it was a good learning experience:)

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        Ben Connelly

        Cool! My mother is a bankruptcy judge in Virginia. And I totally understand that, I was that age too once (perhaps not terribly long ago).

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  3. Avatar photo
    Victor Clairmont

    Goodness me....

    I read the title and I was like, “No....no god no! Please tell me Sarah and David are not interviewing Jim Acosta from CNN! Nooooooooooooooooo!”

    Thank goodness it’s a justice with a similar last name who I, as a normal person, would have never heard of or ran across otherwise.

    Whew, dodged a bullet.

    Good interview if a bit wonky. The three judge panel idea from the past was very interesting.

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  4. Shawn Crawford

    David, what civil litigation did you do that was anything like collegiate? I can't imagine more hateful people than civil attorneys. Everything was taken personally and in the worst light even years after it happened.

    I left private civil medical malpractice practice for public defending primarily because of the caustic and just flipping terrible way civil attorneys treat each other. The Criminal Bar is heaven comparatively.

    God have mercy on you journalists if it's worse than civil lit.

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    1. Avatar photo
      Ben Connelly

      David used to work for FIRE handling a lot of First Amendment litigation especially related to college campuses.

      As far as his journalistic career, he gets credible death threats against his family, entire corners of the Internet are devoted to hatred of him, and neo Nazis sent him hate mail about his wife and daughter with his daughter’s picture photoshopped into gas chambers. I could go on. He takes a remarkable amount of hatred now so I imagine litigation was much calmer.

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    William Miller

    My takeaway from this episode is that when suing to enjoin the National League from permanently switching to a DH, one should forum shop to try and have Costa on your appeal panel.

    D***...no NL teams in the 5th Circuit. What if we trade the Diamondbacks for the Astros to put them back in the NL since they are in the Southern District of TX?

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  6. Avatar photo
    Jason Gibson

    The judge has a great speaking voice. He could have his own podcast!

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  7. Avatar photo
    T.K. Small

    @David, the book you were probably referencing is "The Buffalo Creek Disaster" by Gerald M. Stern. I also had to read that book in my first year of law school.

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  8. Avatar photo
    Brandon McLarty

    I didn’t have “David French has connections to Byhalia, MS” on my Advisory Opinions bingo card but here we are. My Dad grew up there and my grandparents still live there. It definitely has grown in size along with the surrounding areas such as Desoto County. But still a classic, sleepy Mississippi town.

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