Arangesan Suntharalinkam v. Alberto R. Gonzales, Attorney General
Opinion of the Court
Order; Dissent by Judge KOZINSKI.
ORDER
Petitioner’s unopposed motion for leave to file 15,500 word supplemental brief is GRANTED.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
In their joint motion to file supplemental briefing, the parties agreed to abide by Fed. R.App. P. 32, which, among other things, limits the length of briefs to 14,000 words. Fed. R.App. P. 32(a)(7)(B)(i). Petitioner now seeks leave to file an oversized brief because “[t]here are a number of issues involved in this case,” which pretty much describes most of our cases. Petitioner offers no other reason.
The case for extra pages is particularly weak here because petitioner has already filed a 24-page principal brief and a 9-page reply brief. Two amicus briefs have also been filed in support of petitioner, adding another 33 pages to his side of the argument. The government’s brief, which defends the same territory, came in at 12,242 words.
I find it vexing that petitioner did not file his motion in time so we could rule on it without disrupting the briefing schedule. Instead, he sent in a non-conforming brief the day after it was due, then waited three weeks to file the motion for leave to file the fat brief. Such tactics force us and opposing counsel to choose between consenting to the filing of a non-conforming brief and disrupting the briefing schedule. I don’t believe we should reward such cavalier behavior on counsel’s part. I would therefore deny the motion and give petitioner 5 days to file a substitute brief conforming to Fed. R.App. P. 32. This would still leave about a month before oral argument for us to read the revised brief.
Not only do we abet the flouting of our rules, which must be discomfiting to those lawyers who abide by them, we also do a
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Arangesan SUNTHARALINKAM, Petitioner, v. Alberto R. GONZALES, Attorney General, Respondent
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published