SCOTUSblog by Kalvis Golde 10/5/2019
States are often a party in cases before the Supreme Court. In fact, Article III of the Constitution specifically lists suits between states as an explicit reason for establishing a high court. As this practice has developed over time, most state attorneys general have created offices devoted solely to arguing appellate cases.
But no matter how long its history of appellate adjudication, no matter how experienced its attorneys, nothing can quite prepare a state for three Supreme Court oral arguments in 30 days. So when the justices granted Kahler v. Kansas and Kansas v. Garcia on March 28, 2019, and then Kansas v. Glover two weeks later, Kansas received quite a windfall. All three cases will be heard in the first three weeks of oral argument.
To discover what the past few months have been like in preparation for this triple-header, SCOTUSblog spoke with Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt. We are grateful to Attorney General Schmidt for taking the time out of his busy schedule to talk to us.
To Schmidt’s knowledge, this is the “first time in state history†that Kansas has argued three Supreme Court cases in a single term, and “certainly in such quick succession.†The feat is rare nationally, too. Although a state attorney general’s office has argued two cases in a given year – last term, Alaska argued Sturgeon v. Frost and Nieves v. Bartlett, and Virginia argued Virginia House of Delegates v. Bethune-Hill and Virginia Uranium, Inc. v. Warren – three cases for one state is an outlier. Three cases in 30 days is practically unheard of.
More:
https://www.scotusblog.com/2019/10/three-grants-and-youre-out-of-coffee/#more-289489
