- NRSC v FEC 1Am: Campaign finance Francisco(P) Clarity5,Mastery4,Adaptivity4,Interplay4 Harris(SG) Clarity4,Mastery4,Adaptivity3,Interplay3 Martinez(Amicus) Clarity4,Mastery2,Adaptivity3,Interplay4 Elias(Int) Clarity4,Mastery5,Adaptivity5,Interplay4 www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRj2...
- All heavy-hitters for this one. Francisco & Harris are a potent tag team, making a mix of policy & speech args to keep the Court going on a speech-optimized approach to election regs. Some quieter key players (Roberts, Barrett) creates slight doubt about a P win, but not much.
- Martinez - Now documentary star! youtu.be/aRMlIHg0fWo?... SCOTUS-appointed amicus here, but a bit ill-suited to this particular job. Strengths were tell-it-like-it-is on the slippery slope, but weak on substance and expertise at points. Always a compelling orator though.
- m83 safe harbor question unanswered (Elias answers later), m86 bait-and-switch lingo that should hold purchase with liberal justices, but less bite for the rest. m101 Sotomayor: we’re both borrowing from my sister, Justice Ginsburg (re: umbrella metaphor).Dec 11, 2025 14:15
- Elias - Shored-up many of Martinez’s weaknesses with deep expertise (maybe that was the plan), weaved w/args that give election regs a shot.
- m114 Kagan finally takes a jab at a troubling theme throughout the arg - is it really SCOTUS’s job to tinker with the speech mix to prop up political parties? Why would Kavanaugh in particular, usually reticent about policy-making, be so into tinkering here?
