In a post on the Appellate Advocacy Blog, CCL's Robert Peck discusses the value of rhetoric in appellate advocacy: appellate_advocacy/2021/08/do-rhetorical-flourishes-have-a-place-in-judicial-opinions-or-appellate-briefs.html.

     The posting is part of the law professors blog network and looks at a recent law review article that argues that rhetoric, both by advocates and by judges, disserves the judicial enterprise. Peck takes issue with that, though he argues that care must be taken. Still, some of the most influential and most quoted cases in Supreme Court history are both memorable and important because of the use of rhetoric. Some of those turns of phrases, he says, are only appropriate for a judge, because an advocate is in the position of trying to win over a court that may not appreciate the allusion or humor used. Peck, though, finds solace in making use what may otherwise be heated rhetoric when it comes in a quotation from aa cited case.