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Raffi Melkonian

@rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social

33K followers 590 following 5.4K posts

Appellate lawyer at Wright, Close & Barger in Houston, with a Fifth Circuit and TX appellate practice. So-called Dean, #appellatetwitter. Host of The Appellate Wanderer podcast

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · Jan 7

Whatever you’re imagining, it’s going to be 4x dumber that that.

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 16h

Undergrad: "Man, 10 page essay. what am I going to write in here"

Lawyer: "What do you mean just 13,000 words?"

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 16h

That's totally right.

Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 18h

Yes!

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 18h

The basic unit of celebration is such a nice phrase

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 18h

"For me, a chocolate cake is the basic unit of celebration," Nigella Lawson writes. Try her five-star chocolate Guinness cake recipe: nyti.ms/4355for

A slice of chocolate cake with white frosting with the headline: Five-Star Chocolate Guinness Cake

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Reposted by Raffi Melkonian

Sean Marotta @smmarotta.bsky.social · 23h

"Somewhat more troubling is appellant's listing, in large capital letters, that he was a member of the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. The emphasis of this relatively uninformative fact is at least bad taste."

In re R.M.J., 455 U.S. 191, 205 (1982) (citation omitted).

Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 23h

Went on a firm's website and one of the things they tout on their front page is.... this? I am... puzzled by that claim.

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 23h

It's just filling out a form y'all. That's it.

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 23h

Went on a firm's website and one of the things they tout on their front page is.... this? I am... puzzled by that claim.

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 1d

*tea

Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 1d

OK, but in no circumstance attempt to eat them without a mug of team. No one knows what might happen.

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 1d

I'm a regular hobnobs man.

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Reposted by Raffi Melkonian

Matthew Stiegler @matthewstiegler.bsky.social · 2d

Half of being a good appellate lawyer is just being stubborn enough to delete the pretty good stuff until you finally get it right.

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 1d

If it was just that - a statute that says under state law when you sue for libel there is fee shifting - no.

Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 1d

I remember reading the cases holding state anti slapps could apply in federal court in around 2015 and going “huh? What are you talking about? These are obviously procedural law” and nothing I’ve read since then has changed my mind.

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 1d

Yeah it’s basically “if it wasn’t appealable, the government would be sad”

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 1d

Also, you what absolutely should not be an appealable collateral order? An order denying qualified immunity.

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 1d

Important case with big consequences.

I will say I’ve long thought these can’t apply in federal court for basically the reasons Bumatay expresses. But the forum shopping concern is very real.

Mike Masnick @mmasnick.bsky.social · 1d

9th Circuit just made anti-SLAPP laws (like the good ones in California and Nevada) a lot less effective. This is going to lead to a ton of suppressed speech. Stupid and dangerous. Especially now.

We need a federal anti-SLAPP law now. And we won't get one.

cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...

cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 1d

And, for fun, a normal jury is actually called a "petit jury." So Grand Jury, Petit Jury.

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 1d

"No, this one really is Rooker Feldman!"

No, it's not Rooker Feldman.

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 1d

Hmm. Maybe that's the First Rule. I need to rethink this.

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 1d

Let's repeat Raffi's Second Law of Federal Litigation (the first is: "is your name Bivens? If not, there's no Bivens") which is, "It's never Rooker-Feldman."

www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub...

Because the source of the injury asserted by English’s complaint is
Defendants–Appellees’ conduct, not the state court judgment, Defendants–
Appellees’ Rooker–Feldman arguments fail. See Avdeef v. Royal Bank of
Scotland, 616 F. App’x 665, 673 (5th Cir. 2015) (“If the plaintiff claims
damages for injuries caused by the defendants’ actions—even those
occurring during litigation—rather than injuries arising from a state-court
judgment itself, the federal suit is not barred by Rooker–Feldman.” (citing
Truong, 717 F.3d at 383)).
Defendants–Appellees raise five other grounds to dismiss English’s
defamation claim that were not reached by the district court. Given the factbound nature of many of these grounds, we vacate the district court’s
dismissal of this claim and remand to the district court for consideration of
these arguments in the first instance. See R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. FDA,
96 F.4th 863, 868 (5th Cir. 2024).
II

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 2d

I dunno, that’s pretty complicated!

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 2d

Yes, musk and Trump destroyed the other website where all this was happening. That’s life! We can keep it going as best we can.

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 2d

Yep! It turns out that you can meet awesome people if you don’t like physically meeting people and spend all cocktail parties eating shrimps.

Sean Marotta @smmarotta.bsky.social · 2d

Personally, I met some of the best people through #AppellateTwitter.

Professionally, I was kind of a nobody with a nothing clerkship from a not-elite school who became a decently well-known commentator on the law and SCOTUS because I tweeted and knew how to be interviewed on niche legal topics.

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett.bsky.social · 3d

Has anything great happened in your life because of social media?

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 2d

OMG, more 100% standard issue catholic doctrine!

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Raffi Melkonian @rmfifthcircuit.bsky.social · 2d

Probably! The Elect can do things Mortals cannot.