Court appoints former clerk to argue in post-conviction relief case

SCOTUS NEWS

The Supreme Court on Thursday appointed a former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas to argue in a case involving the application of the federal laws governing post-conviction relief for federal prisoners. In a brief order, the justices appointed Kasdin Mitchell, a partner in the Dallas office of Kirkland & Ellis, to defend the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Bowe v. United States, which will likely be argued in April.

In its brief opposing review, the federal government agreed with Michael Bowe, who was convicted of attempted robbery and discharging a gun during a crime of violence, that the court of appeals was wrong on one question presented by his petition for review, when it held that a provision of federal post-conviction law required the dismissal of his motion for post-conviction relief. But the federal government insisted that the Supreme Court nonetheless lacked the power to review Bowe’s case.

Because the federal government was no longer defending part of the 11th Circuit’s ruling, the justices tapped Mitchell to do so instead. The practice of appointing an outside attorney is not an uncommon one; normally, the justices do so once or twice per term. But Mitchell is the sixth outside attorney that the justices have appointed during the current term.

It will be Mitchell’s first argument before the court. In 2019, she worked with K. Winn Allen, who was appointed as a friend of the court to brief and argue in support of the judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in Holguin-Hernandez v. United States.