It's time for the Maine SJC to ride the circuit, in the annual October Tour o'Maine – when the Court hears arguments in high schools around the state. The calendar, with a summary of the cases and links to the briefs, is attached here (Law Court Calendar). They are in Lincoln Oct. 8, Yarmouth October 9 and Presque Isle Oct. 28 (gee, I guess it still takes a while to get up there.)
From just the short blurbs on the SJC cite, none of these set my heart palpitating, although I'm sure they are important to the parties and their counsel, and it's always worthwhile to tune in and hear arguments as a general matter.
The October argument I am putting on my calendar to listen to is federal, before the First Circuit – Mayhew v. Burwell (1st Cir. Calendar). It's on October 7, around 10:30 by my calculations. That's the case about whether the State can take 19-year olds off benefits, and the Governor and DHS disagree with the AG. So there will be an independent counsel arguing for the appellant state agency (former PA-ite Cliff Ruprecht), with Chris Taub of the AG's office arguing against the agency's position (splitting time with the federal agency's lawyer). Both Cliff and Chris are excellent at oral argument, and it's a crackerjack panel – CJ Lynch, Judge Selya and newbie Judge Barron, whom I have yet to encounter but has pretty zippy creds.
