About DSCRAP

DSCRAP is a panel of federal defenders assisting other defenders and court-appointed counsel engaged in Supreme Court litigation: brainstorming issues, preparing and finalizing petitions and merits briefs, coordinating amicus curiae, and conducting moot courts in final preparation for oral argument. Panel members have vast experience as counsel of record in hundreds of cases before the Court, including authoring briefs in dozens of cert grants and arguing orally in many individual cases.

DSCRAP's goal is to perfect written and oral advocacy before the Court. Assistance is provided without fee or obligation. Recent case participation is summarized in the posts that follow.

Barber v. Thomas

Stephen R. Sady, Chief Deputy Federal Public Defender, counsel of record for petitioner.

Petition for cert here.

Magwood v. Culliver

Jeffrey L. Fisher, Stanford Law School, counsel of record for petitioner.

Holland v. Florida

Todd G. Scher, counsel of record for petitioner

Skilling v. United States

Daniel M. Petrocelli of O'Melveny & Myers, LLP, private counsel of record for petitioner.

United States v. Marcus

Herald Price Fahringer, private counsel of record for respondent.

Weyhrauch v. United States

Donald B. Ayer, of Jones Day, private counsel of record for petitioner.

Florida v. Powell

Cynthia J. Dodge, APD, counsel of record for respondent.

United States v. Comstock

Jane E. Pearce, AFPD, counsel of record for respondent

Carr v. United States

Charles A. Rothfeld, of Mayer Brown, LLP, counsel of record for petitioner.

Berghuis v. Smith

James Sterling Lawrence, counsel of record for respondent.

Berghuis v. Thompkins

Elizabeth L. Jacobs, counsel of record for respondent.

Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project

David D. Cole, counsel for petitioner/respondent

United States v. O'Brien & Burgess

Leslie Feldman-Rumpler, court-appointed counsel of record for resondent Burgess, and Timothy O'Connell, court-appointed counsel of record for respondent O'Brien.

Wood v. Allen

Kerry Alan Scanlon, counsel of record for petitioner.

Sullivan v. Florida

Bryan A. Stevenson, counsel of record for petitioner.

Graham v. Florida

John S. Mills, counsel of record for in forma pauperis petitioner.

Bloate v. United States

Mark T. Stancil, Robbins, Russell, et al, private counsel of record for petitioner.

United States v. Stevens

Lisa B. Freeland, Federal Public Defender, and Karen Sirianni Gerlach, AFPD, WD PA, counsel of record for respondent.

Pottawattamie County, IA v. Harrington

Jeffrey W. Sarles, Mayer Brown, private counsel of record for petitioner.

Johnson v. United States

Lisa Call, AFPD and FPD Donna Elm, counsel of record for petitioner. Also, Jim Skuthan of MDFL office. Brainstorming and brief editing by Tim Crooks, Phil Lynch, Donna Coltharp, Brenda Bryn, Margaret Katze, Judy Mizner, Margy Meyers, Denise Barrett, Mike Sokolow, Miriam Conrad, Stephen McCue, Henry & Fran.

Smith v. Spisak

Michael J. Benza, private counsel of record for respondent.

Maryland v. Shatzer

Celia Anderson Davis, Assistant Public Defender, counsel of record for respondent.

McDaniel v. Brown

AFPD Paul Turner and FPD Franny Forsman, counsel of record for respondent.

Bobby v. Bies

Randall Porter, Office of the Ohio Public Defender, counsel of record for respondent.

Nijhawan v. Mukasey

Thomas Moseley, private counsel of record for petitioner.

Safford Unified School District v, Redding

Adam B. Wolf, private counsel of record for respondent.

Abuelhawa v. United States

Sri Srinivasan of O'Melveny & Myers, private counsel of record for petitioner.

Yeager v. United States

Samuel J. Buffone, private counsel of record, for petitioner.

Dean v. United States

Scott T. Forester of Calhoun, Georgia, counsel of record for petitoner, in forma pauperis, assisted by Sidley Austin.

Decided 7-2 in favor of respondent.

District Attorney’s Office v. Osborne

Private counsel of record for respondent.

Flores-Figeuroa v. United States

Private counsel of record.

Decided 9-0 in favor of petitioner.

Vermont v. Brillon

William Nelson, counsel of record, in forma pauperis, for respondent.

Reversed 7-2.

Rivera v. Illinois

James Leven, counsel of record, in forma pauperis.

Decided unanimously in favor of respondent.

Puckett v. United States

Lars Robert Isaacson, private counsel of record, in forma pauperis.

Decided 7-2 for respondent.

Montejo v. Louisiana

Donald Verrilli, of Jenner & Block, private counsel of record.

Kansas v. Ventris

Matthew Edge, counsel of record for respondent, Kansas Appellate Public Defender Office.

Reversed 7-2.

Corley v. United States

David McColgin, counsel of record, Supervising Appellate Attorney for the Federal Defender Association of Philadelphia. Brainstorming issues and development of amicus positions by David, Brett Sweitzer, Steve Hubachek, Jeff Green (Sidley Austin) and Paul Rashkind. Authoring of brief by David and Brett, with edits by Steve, Jeff, Carlton Gunn, Sarah Gannett, Rob Epstein, Christy Unger, and Paul.

Merits brief of petitioner is available here. The amicus brief of NACDL and NAFD is here.

Decided 5-4 for petitioner.

Boyle v. United States

Marc Fernich, private counsel of record.

Harbison v. Bell

Dana C. Hansen Chavis, counsel of record, and Stephen M. Kissinger, both of the Federal Defender Service of Eastern Tennessee, for petitioner.

Decided 7-2 for petitioner.

Arizona v. Johnson

Mary Edith Cunningham, counsel of record for respondent, APD, Pima County Public Defender's Office.

Cone v. Bell

Thomas Goldstein, private counsel of record, and Paul Bottei, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Middle District of Tennessee.

Vacated and remanded 7-2.

Bell v. Kelly

Richard P. Bress, Latham & Watkins, private counsel of record. Henry, Fran and Paul in discussions concerning NAFD and NACDL amicus support to be authored by Justin Marceau, AFPD in Arizona. David Porter is attempting to get NACDL on board. Justin and Andrea Lyon, DePaul Law School, collaborated on an amicus brief that was filed on behalf of NAFD; motion for leave to file amicus granted here.

Cert dismissed as improvidently granted.

Chambers v. United States

Philip J. Kavanaugh, FPD; Andrea L. Smith, AFPD + private counsel of record Robert Hochman (Sidley Austin).

Decided 9-0 for petitioner.

United States v. Hayes

Troy Giatris, private counsel of record for respondent.

Decided 7-2 in favor of petitioner.

Pearson v. Callahan

Robert Long, Covington & Burling, private counsel of record for respondent. Argued by Theodore Melzer.

Oral argument transcript here.

Decided unanimously in favor of petitioner.

Jimenez v. Quarterman

Pro se petitioner.Tom Goldstein, private counsel of record filed appearance.

Decided 9-0 for petitioner.

Oregon v. Ice

Petition filed by Peter Gartlan, Office of Public Defense Services. Ernest G. Lannett, of the same office, was appointed by the Court as counsel of record for respondent.

Oral argument transcript now available here.

Decided 5-4 in favor of petitioner.

Waddington v. Sarausad

Patricia Novotny & David Zuckerman, private counsel of record for respondent. Initial conference with Henry and Paul. David Porter to assist in merits brief preparation.

Decided 6-3 in favor of petitioner.

Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts

Jeff Fisher & Stanford Law Clinic, counsel of record. Donna Coltharp, Judy Mizner and Steve Moss did significant editing on the amicus brief filed by NAFD, NACDL and the National College of DUI Defense, a copy of which is available here.

Arizona v. Gant

Private counsel of record. Discussion with counsel concerning amicus support by Fran Pratt. Oral argument for respondent by Thomas Jacobs. Transcript is here.

Affirmed 5-4
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)