For any U.S. Supreme Court litigator, a justice singling out your amicus brief as “extraordinary” for its substance is sweet music to the ears. And when that justice is the chief, well, cymbals crash.
During arguments Wednesday in McDonnell v. United States, Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. directed Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben’s attention to the “extraordinary document” that Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher filed on behalf of former counsels to Republican and Democratic presidents in the past 35 years.
