The Legal Times and the Wall Street Journal Law Blog are reporting that BYU Law alum, Jay T. Jorgensen (Class of ’97), will be arguing today before the United States Supreme Court. The odd part of the story – he’ll be doing it for free, at the request of the Supreme Court, and without a client. From the Legal Times:
“These once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to argue before the Court arise when, as in Greenlaw (Jorgensen’s case), the respondent abandons the lower court decision that the petitioner is challenging. That scrambles the usual adversary nature of Supreme Court cases, because it means, in essence, that both sides think the lower court decision was wrong or should be vacated.
In that circumstance, which has not arisen for five years before this term, the Court appoints a lawyer — almost always a former clerk — to make the orphaned argument.”