One of the sharpest legal minds ever to stand before the Supreme Court decided to have a little fun with the justices Monday — and got a pointed reminder from the bench that daring the nation's top judges is a risky game, Courthouse News Service reported.
Lisa Blatt has argued more cases before the Supreme Court than any other woman in American legal history. On Monday she was back at the podium, this time defending a Maryland hospital system in a dry but consequential fight over the boundaries of federal court power.
The dispute centered on whether to expand or discard the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, a legal principle that limits federal courts from second-guessing state court decisions. Justice Neil Gorsuch pressed opposing counsel Elizabeth Prelogar to make the case for scrapping it entirely, asking her to "sing a few bars for me."
Prelogar, the former top government lawyer who once argued — and lost — the case that ended federal abortion rights, obliged. But when the argument turned to whether the doctrine could realistically be overturned, Blatt stepped in with a verdict of her own.
"Not in an April case," she told the justices. "Not happening." Laughter rippled through the courtroom.
Justice Samuel Alito, appointed by George W. Bush, was unmoved.
"Don't dare my colleagues," he said flatly.
Justice Elena Kagan had already signaled skepticism toward Blatt's position, warning that a ruling in her favor would effectively tell lower courts that the doctrine was "alive and well" — a message she called "very odd."
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pressed Prelogar from the other direction, worrying that her proposed rule would give state court losers little incentive to exhaust their appeals before running to federal court.
Together Blatt and Prelogar have racked up nearly a century's worth of Supreme Court appearances between them. When the sparring was finally over, they hugged.