In the 1939 film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” a young James Stewart plays Mr. Smith, a newly appointed senator who goes to D.C. with high hopes of making a difference and ends up launching a 25-hour filibuster, during which he talks about American ideals. While the Appellate Practice Section’s trip to Washington, D.C. in May 2024 was not for the purpose of appearing before Congress for a filibuster, the trip was a momentous one for our section members. We traveled to D.C. to be sworn into practice in front of the Supreme Court of the United States.

How did this amazing trip come to be? This trip was organized by Jamie Kilbourne and Michelle Liguori, and it’s my understanding that planning for this trip took years. I do not know all the details regarding the planning and coordination for this trip, but I do know that our section leaders and the folks at the NCBA had a lot of hoops to jump through to make this trip happen. Once they put in all that hard work to plan and organize this trip, we all had to get there, and that’s where things got interesting. After travel adventures worthy of comparison to the movie “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” (canceled flights that got rescheduled for an arrival time the following day, trains from Charlotte and Raleigh delayed for upwards of 6 to 8 hours, folks having to abandon their original mode of travel and drive instead), we arrived the night before the swearing in, and many of us gathered for a relaxing drink at a local pub before we broke into small groups for dinner.

The next morning, neither the heat nor the humidity (seriously, y’all it was really hot and humid even early in the morning) could stop us from leaving our hotels by 6:45 a.m. to make our 7 a.m. report time in front of the SCOTUS building and, after a few minutes spent taking pictures for posterity, we made our way in through security to the first of several holding areas. Thanks to the section’s generous decision to use section funds to feed us, one of those holding areas involved breakfast while we waited. (In case you are wondering, SCOTUS catering is pretty much like all event catering – muffins and bagels with coffee and juice. I’m not sure what I was expecting. Maybe RBG shaped waffles?) Three hours after passing through security, we were sitting in the historic courtroom, waiting for Court to convene promptly at 10 a.m. The Justices arrived from behind the velvet drapes[1] and quickly took their places so that they could announce the day’s opinions. The day’s released opinions were Coinbase, Inc. v. Suski, et al., 144 S.Ct. 1186 (2024) (regarding arbitration clauses), Brown v. United States, 144 S.Ct. 1195 (2024) (involving interpretation of the Armed Career Criminal Act), and Alexander v. S.C. State Conf. of the NAACP, 144 S. Ct. 1221 (2024) (involving congressional redistricting). Once the justices finished with that, it was time for each group of prospective admittees to be presented to the Court.

Section member Angela Craddock presented section members Stephen Vincent Cary, Ashley Ann Crowder, Eric M. David, Christy Cochran Dunn, Craig Dixon Justus, James W. Kilbourn, Jr., John William Moss, Amie Carol Sivon, and Rebecca K. Watts as well as Jason Hensley, Executive Director of the North Carolina Bar Association and a few other tag-along North Carolina bar members for admission. I have it on good authority that Angela was warned to stick to the exact wording of the script she had been given, or risk being held in contempt of SCOTUS. Also in attendance were section members who were already members of the SCOTUS Bar, namely Quintin Byrd and Michelle Liguori, who served as the sponsors for all of the applicants, and past section chair Gregg Schwitzgebel. All aspiring admittees were admitted and sworn in at around 10:15 a.m., and Court then recessed for the day. After some obligatory souvenir shopping in the SCOTUS gift shop, we attended another event organized by the section – we were given a private lecture, back in the courtroom, about the history of the Court.

I admit I am biased because I was a part of this trip, but I think that this was a wonderful experience, and I cannot say enough about the folks who made this happen. And, I think that there are tentative plans to schedule another trip at some time in the future (when we can get back on the SCOTUS calendar). So, if you missed this one, stay tuned, because you may just have another chance to travel to D.C. with the Appellate Practice Section and have an experience like no other.

[1] I debated whether to insert a reference to “The Wizard of Oz” but decided not to because I’ve probably already gone too far with putting in two movie references, but, really, the Justices came out from behind the curtains just like the wizard was behind a curtain, so the reference is right there begging to be made, but I resisted. Yes, I do realize that by saying I am not making a reference to this movie I am, in fact, making a reference to this movie. But it’s a classic, so I refuse to apologize for the non-reference reference. Everyone should go re-watch The Wizard of Oz as soon as possible.

March 24, 2025/by Appellate