Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. once told an interviewer, “I have yet to put down a brief and say, ‘I wish that had been longer.’” His comment is one of many bits of advice, direct and indirect, that can be gleaned from Roberts’s years of writing as well as his public comments about the craft of appellate advocacy. Roberts’s first recommendation to litigators would likely be to read the classic 1940 ABA Journal article by former solicitor general John W. Davis, “The Argument of an Appeal.” When giving advice on how to win a case, Roberts often invokes Davis’s rules, which include: “Always go for the jugular vein,” “Rejoice when the court asks questions,” “Know your record from cover to cover,” and the ever-popular “Sit down.” Roberts’s own rules include the following advice:
“If you believe the result you seek is compelled by a recent Supreme Court decision, ignore all advice about how to structure the perfect argument; begin and end with that controlling decision.” —”Thoughts on Presenting an Effective Oral Argument,” 1997, School Law in Review.
