Two things happened yesterday for The Bartlett Blawg: It was the end of the blawg’s second month, and on the same day The Bartlett Blawg passed its 2,000th hit. For those of you keeping score, that second thousand occurred in three weeks, while the first thousand took a little over five weeks. Many thanks to those of you who are increasingly making this site a regular stop for information on opinions and goings-on at the U.S. Fifth Circuit, U.S. Supreme Court, and Louisiana Supreme Court.

The Bartlett Blawg being a day younger than the The Bartlett Law Firm, the two-month mark for the firm passed a couple days ago. There is good news on that front, as well, as I have had the opportunity to associate with a couple of different law firms on appeals in the U.S. Fifth Circuit and the Louisiana Third Circuit, keeping The Bartlett Law Firm ahead of schedule as far as the financial start-up scenario goes. Many thanks, of course, to those law firms and those clients. I hope to talk with others of you in the near future regarding any appellate matters that you are facing.

I offer a few observations from the past month of opinions reported on The Bartlett Blawg:

• A couple of interesting procedural/postural issues came up in the past week. There was, of course, the intriguing majority-of-one opinion by Justice Stevens in the June 2 opinions in U.S. v. Santos, where the plurality claimed Justice Stevens’ reasoning (which helped push the plurality to “judgment of the Court” status) was dicta while the main dissent claimed Justice Stevens’ reasoning carries the day as precedent. Then on June 3 the U.S. Fifth Circuit published a peculiar oddball in Maples v. Partain - a per curiam opinion with a dissent. If “per curiam” is supposed to mean “by the court,” but the whole panel of the court is not in agreement, can the majority really be per curiam? Shouldn’t the author of the majority opinion, here either Judge Reavley or Judge Jolly, ‘fess up and claim ownership of the opinion? There’s no rule that requires it, and the phenomenon of the per curiam majority, while rare, is not absolutely unheard-of. But curious, nonetheless.
• The following statistics apply to opinions released by the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2008: Opinions for the Court were authored by Justices Stevens (1), Scalia (1), Kennedy (1), Souter (1), Ginsburg (1), Breyer (1), and Alito (2); concurring opinions were authored by Chief Justice Roberts (1) and Justices Stevens (2), Scalia (3), Thomas (2), and Breyer (1); dissenting opinions were authored by Chief Justice Roberts (1) and Justices Stevens (1), Kennedy (1), Thomas (3), Souter (2), Breyer (1), and Alito (1). In addition, Chief Justice Roberts joined the opinion of the Court seven times, Justice Stevens did so five times, Justice Scalia three times, Justice Kennedy six times, Justice Thomas three times, Justice Souter four times, Justice Ginsburg five times, Justice Breyer six times, and Justice Alito five times. Justice Stevens joined a dissent not his own once, Justice Scalia three times, Justice Thomas once, Justice Souter once, Justice Ginsburg twice, and Justice Alito once.
• The following statistics apply to published opinions released by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in May 2008: Chief Judge Jones authored one published majority opinion and one opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part; Judge Reavley authored two published majority opinions; Judge Higginbotham authored one published majority opinion; Judge Davis authored two published majority opinions; Judge Smith authored four published majority opinions; Judge Wiener authored one published majority opinion; Judge Barksdale authored one published majority opinion; Judge Garza authored two published majority opinions; Judge DeMoss authored two published majority opinions; Judge Stewart authored two published majority opinions; Judge Dennis authored four published majority opinions; Judge Clement authored two published majority opinions; Judge Owen authored four published majority opinions and one concurring opinion; and Judge Southwick wins the prize for May, with seven published majority opinions. There were also three published majority opinions by district court judges sitting by designation (Judge Clark (2) and Judge Drell (1)), and five published per curiam opinions.
• The following statistics apply to the opinions released by the Louisiana Supreme Court in May 2008: In the seven opinion released in May, Chief Justice Calogero authored one majority opinion, concurred once, and dissented once; Justice Victory authored one majority opinion, concurred once, and dissented twice; Justice Traylor authored one majority opinion, and dissented twice; Justice Kimball authored two majority opinions; Justice Johnson authored one majority opinion, and dissented once; and Justice Weimer authored one majority opinion.