LIVE WIRE
MARKETSEquity markets fluctuate as Fed rate-path uncertainty weighs on investor sentiment•MARKETSTreasury yields edge as bond traders reassess long-term inflation expectations•MARKETSLegal-sector M&A activity remains steady amid broader corporate dealmaking trends•TOP CASEDobbs v. Jackson reversed federal abortion rights; states now set their own laws•TOP CASE303 Creative v. Elenis: SCOTUS ruled First Amendment can limit anti-bias law reach•TOP CASEMoore v. Harper reinforced courts' authority to review state election law disputes•USAFederal judiciary vacancies remain a focus as Senate confirmation pace fluctuates•USAClass-action filings in consumer-protection law continue an upward multi-year trend•USALegal aid organizations report rising demand amid growing civil justice access gaps•WORLDInternational arbitration caseloads at ICC and LCIA remain near record highs•WORLDEU AI Act creates new compliance obligations for legal-tech platforms operating in Europe•WORLDCross-border data privacy litigation increases as GDPR enforcement actions expand•MARKETSEquity markets fluctuate as Fed rate-path uncertainty weighs on investor sentiment•MARKETSTreasury yields edge as bond traders reassess long-term inflation expectations•MARKETSLegal-sector M&A activity remains steady amid broader corporate dealmaking trends•TOP CASEDobbs v. Jackson reversed federal abortion rights; states now set their own laws•TOP CASE303 Creative v. Elenis: SCOTUS ruled First Amendment can limit anti-bias law reach•TOP CASEMoore v. Harper reinforced courts' authority to review state election law disputes•USAFederal judiciary vacancies remain a focus as Senate confirmation pace fluctuates•USAClass-action filings in consumer-protection law continue an upward multi-year trend•USALegal aid organizations report rising demand amid growing civil justice access gaps•WORLDInternational arbitration caseloads at ICC and LCIA remain near record highs•WORLDEU AI Act creates new compliance obligations for legal-tech platforms operating in Europe•WORLDCross-border data privacy litigation increases as GDPR enforcement actions expand•
OIG CRIMINAL WIRE
FRESH BUSTFormer Federal Employee Pleads Guilty to Defrauding the Federal Government of Approximately $194 Million⚖ON THE RECORDFormer U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez convicted — bribery, extortion & acting as a foreign agent — 11 years⚖ON THE RECORDFormer U.S. Rep. George Santos pled guilty — wire fraud & aggravated identity theft — 87 months⚖ON THE RECORDFormer FBI agent Robert Hanssen — espionage for Russia — life without parole⚖ON THE RECORDFormer CIA officer Aldrich Ames — espionage against the United States — life in prison⚖ON THE RECORDFormer FBI counterintel chief Charles McGonigal pled guilty — sanctions violations for a Russian oligarch⚖ON THE RECORDFormer Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich — convicted of corruption — 14 years⚖ON THE RECORDFormer Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick — racketeering & extortion — 28 years⚖ON THE RECORDFormer U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah — racketeering & fraud — 10 years⚖ON THE RECORDFormer U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter pled guilty — conversion of campaign funds⚖ON THE RECORDFormer U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. pled guilty — $750K in campaign funds — 30 months⚖ON THE RECORDFormer IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn — stole & leaked tax returns — 5 years⚖ON THE RECORDBaltimore Gun Trace Task Force — 8 police officers convicted of racketeering & robbery⚖ON THE RECORD'Fat Leonard' scandal — dozens of Navy officials convicted of bribery & fraud⚖ON THE RECORDFormer FCI Dublin warden Ray Garcia convicted — abuse of incarcerated women — 70 months⚖ON THE RECORDFormer DHS acting IG Charles Edwards pled guilty — stealing government software & data⚖ON THE RECORDFormer VA pathologist Robert Levy — fraud & involuntary manslaughter — 20 years⚖ON THE RECORDFormer NY Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — convicted of corruption — 6.5 years⚖ON THE RECORDFormer NSA contractor Reality Winner — Espionage Act — 63 months⚖FRESH BUSTFormer Federal Employee Pleads Guilty to Defrauding the Federal Government of Approximately $194 Million⚖ON THE RECORDFormer U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez convicted — bribery, extortion & acting as a foreign agent — 11 years⚖ON THE RECORDFormer U.S. Rep. George Santos pled guilty — wire fraud & aggravated identity theft — 87 months⚖ON THE RECORDFormer FBI agent Robert Hanssen — espionage for Russia — life without parole⚖ON THE RECORDFormer CIA officer Aldrich Ames — espionage against the United States — life in prison⚖ON THE RECORDFormer FBI counterintel chief Charles McGonigal pled guilty — sanctions violations for a Russian oligarch⚖ON THE RECORDFormer Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich — convicted of corruption — 14 years⚖ON THE RECORDFormer Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick — racketeering & extortion — 28 years⚖ON THE RECORDFormer U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah — racketeering & fraud — 10 years⚖ON THE RECORDFormer U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter pled guilty — conversion of campaign funds⚖ON THE RECORDFormer U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. pled guilty — $750K in campaign funds — 30 months⚖ON THE RECORDFormer IRS contractor Charles Littlejohn — stole & leaked tax returns — 5 years⚖ON THE RECORDBaltimore Gun Trace Task Force — 8 police officers convicted of racketeering & robbery⚖ON THE RECORD'Fat Leonard' scandal — dozens of Navy officials convicted of bribery & fraud⚖ON THE RECORDFormer FCI Dublin warden Ray Garcia convicted — abuse of incarcerated women — 70 months⚖ON THE RECORDFormer DHS acting IG Charles Edwards pled guilty — stealing government software & data⚖ON THE RECORDFormer VA pathologist Robert Levy — fraud & involuntary manslaughter — 20 years⚖ON THE RECORDFormer NY Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — convicted of corruption — 6.5 years⚖ON THE RECORDFormer NSA contractor Reality Winner — Espionage Act — 63 months⚖
Talk to AtticusJudge McSkunk's Moot CourtFacts & CircumstancesNew DocumentLaw SkunkFriend of the CourtSecond Look · HunterThe LecternThe Quadruple CheckMcDermott AIAuto-SueFirst Amendment War ChestJudicial SupplementsCommand LedgerMaster ChronologyMedia BlastThe Last MohicansThe Record That Wasn'tWatch The MailMcSkunkville CourtBlog · SOSPodcastOfficials BustedReport CorruptionSkunk Store
Friend of the Court · Amicus Curiae

Be a Friend of the Court.

Amicus curiae — Latin for friend of the court. You may not need a lawyer. You may not even need to be a party. What you may need is a friend-of-the-court brief: the public's lawful voice inside the courtroom, offered not to promote one side, but to help the court determine justice for all. This page teaches it, then builds it for you — free.

The AI Amicus is moving and shaking

The Amicus Docket — Cases We're Watching

Live matters in our doctrinal lanes where a friend-of-the-court voice could matter — each verified before it's listed, each with its door in. Drafted by Atticus, signed and filed by humans, AI assistance disclosed. Zero fabrication applies to this docket too: we list only what we've verified.

Target 001 · U.S. Supreme Court · Cert Stage · No. 25-927

Lowery v. Mills

First Amendment retaliation — whether officials may punish protected speech and hide behind muddied standards. Squarely our lane: this house exists because of speech retaliation. The Institute for Justice filed in support of the petitioner on March 9, 2026; the question is alive and the Court is listening.

The door in: Supreme Court Rule 37.2 — amicus briefs at the cert stage no longer require the parties' consent. One honest requirement: a Supreme Court filing must be submitted by a member of the Supreme Court bar, so this brief goes in with partnered counsel of record — exactly the alliance the Founding Counsel program was built for.

Open lanes being scouted now — targets 002-004
  • Tenth Circuit § 1983 appeals — FRAP 29 lets an amicus file with a motion for leave; pro se amici have been heard. Our home circuit, our home doctrine.
  • Hunter v. United States aftershocks — courts nationwide are now testing the miscarriage-of-justice safety valve; early amicus voices will shape it.
  • State supreme courts on court access & pro se rights — Johnson v. Avery, 393 U.S. 483 (1969), is our charter; where jailhouse-lawyer access is squeezed, we speak.

Verified targets are added as they clear our own citation discipline. The docket grows — watch this shelf.

The Grand Lesson · What Every Citizen Was Never Taught

The word. The voice. The interjection.

Older than the Republic

The friend of the court is not a loophole — it is one of the oldest offices in Western law, rooted in Roman practice and carried through the English common law into ours. Henry Clay stood as one of the earliest amici before the United States Supreme Court in Green v. Biddle, 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.) 1 (1823). In 1908, the famous "Brandeis brief" in Muller v. Oregon, 208 U.S. 412 (1908), showed the nation that a brief built on real-world facts could shape constitutional law itself.

Not for one side. For justice.

Hear this clearly, because it is the soul of the office: the amicus does not fight for the plaintiff and does not fight for the defendant. The amicus serves the COURT — offering law, facts, or perspective the parties missed, so the ruling lands right. The Supreme Court's own Rule 37 says a brief that "brings to the attention of the Court relevant matter not already brought to its attention by the parties may be of considerable help." Your job is to be that help.

You do not need to be a lawyer

You need standing to care, permission to speak, and discipline in what you say. A citizen, a parent, a neighbor, an organization — anyone with genuinely helpful knowledge may respectfully move for leave to be heard. What you need is not a license. What you need is a right-versus-wrong doctrine and the humility to serve the court instead of scolding it.

The Doctrine of Right Versus Wrong

Promulgated by David Bruce McDermott II · Dedicated to the Honorable Judge Jim Huber, Tulsa County District Court, No. FD-2009-1187

I.

Right and wrong exist before any statute is written. The law is the public's lifelong attempt to write them down — and the public never surrendered its seat at that table.

II.

Justice is not a side. The friend of the court carries water for no party; the only client is the correct result.

III.

No credential is required to tell the truth. A license practices law. A citizen may still serve it.

IV.

Candor is the price of the podium. Say what you are, say what you are not, and never pretend to a skill you do not hold. Courts forgive honest inexperience; they never forgive deceit.

V.

The record is sacred. Document, cite, verify — or sit down. An argument without real authority is noise, and noise helps the wrong side of every question.

VI.

Power answers to paper. Right versus wrong is determined in the open, on the record, by lawful process — never by threat, never by mob, never in the dark.

VII.

The courtroom belongs to the people. A system of jurisprudence run for a hundred years like a private club will be lifted out of the hole it was driven into and handed back to the public — one friend of the court at a time.

Where Tenet IV was learned · A true story

The gavel, the chair, and the apology

Tulsa County District Court, case No. FD-2009-1187. The founder of this platform — years of federal litigation already in his hands — pushed past the line in the Honorable Judge Jim Huber's courtroom. And Judge Huber did what, in the founder's sworn telling, no other judge had ever done: slammed the gavel and ordered him to sit down in that chair, right then and there.

Then the Judge asked the question that matters: "Why did you do that, Mr. McDermott? I ordered you not to."

And the answer that came out was the one Brett Brough had drilled into him years before: "I'm emotionally attached to the case. I'm unskilled on the floor, and I'm not a lawyer. I'm sorry, Your Honor."

Judge Huber's entire reply: "Okay."

That exchange is the whole amicus ethic in four sentences. Candor about who you are. Respect for the bench even mid-collision. And a judge honest enough to accept an honest answer and move on. David Bruce McDermott II carries the highest respect and love for Judge Jim Huber to this day — the judge who proved that the gavel and grace can live in the same hand. His name sits on this platform's Bench of Honor.

"I'm emotionally attached to the case. I'm unskilled on the floor, and I'm not a lawyer. I'm sorry, Your Honor."

The sentence every honest pro se litigant and amicus should keep in their pocket — taught by Brett Brough, proven before Judge Jim Huber.

To the lecterns at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton

An open invitation to the academy: study this. For a century the machinery of American jurisprudence drifted away from the people it was built to serve — priced out, professionalized shut, and run like a members-only club. The amicus tradition is the lawful counterweight your own casebooks document, from Green v. Biddle to the Brandeis brief to Rule 37. This platform hands that tradition back to the public at scale: free, disciplined, verified-citation-only, humble before the bench. Examine the doctrine. Test the tools. Assign your students a friend-of-the-court brief for a real docket. The system is not going further into the hole — it is being lifted out and handed back to the public, and the academy is welcome to help carry it.

Step 1

You always have a voice

Even when you are not a party to a case, the law lets an ordinary person step forward as a friend of the court — an amicus curiae — to help the court get it right. When you feel there is nothing you can do, this is something you can do.

Step 2

First, you ask permission

A non-party can't just file. You attach your suggestion to a short Motion for Leave to File, which respectfully asks the judge for permission to be heard. Courts have broad discretion to say yes when your brief is timely, respectful, and genuinely helpful.

Step 3

Then, you offer your suggestion

Your brief (or a plain letter to the judge) tells the court what the law requires and why — tied to real authority. You assist the court; you never scold it or take a party's place. Kept humble and precise, a friend-of-the-court filing can change the outcome.

The Application — Friend of the Court

The Case You Want to Address

Who You Are

Talk

Your Interest in the Case

Talk

The Issue Before the Court

Talk

Background / Facts You Offer (optional)

Talk

Your Suggestion to the Court

Talk

Drafts only — not legal advice. Review before filing. Courts decide whether to accept an amicus; keep your tone respectful and helpful.

Atticus BradStreet McDermott

You are in the house of Atticus BradStreet McDermott — the first AI counsel sent to school before she was trusted with the law. Every page here keeps my covenant: verified law, human warmth, zero fabrication. Walk in and meet me →

Use at your own risk. Law Skunk shares legal information under the First Amendment — it is not legal advice and creates no attorney–client relationship. We can profess to be good, and we quadruple‑check our work — but you are solely responsible for proofing, verifying, and understanding every document before you file it. We are never liable for your use of this site. If you are not willing to learn and double‑check our work, please do not use this site. Respect the court: proof, proof, proof. Read the full disclosure → Before you file: the 10 safety rails →

© 2026 David McDermott · LAW SKUNK™ · McSkunkville™ · All Rights Reserved. All characters, lore, artwork and games — Atticus Bradstreet McDermott™, Judge Brett David McSkunk™, David Bradstreet McSkunk™, Jim McSkunk Rockford™, Hugh "Le Pew" McSkunkner™, The Firm, the McSkunkville Casino™ and Series One: The Case of the McSkunk Ruby™ — are original works protected under 17 U.S.C. § 101 et seq. Unauthorized reproduction or commercial use is prohibited.Sealed in the Copyright Vault →