Larry Tribe to Feuding Lawyer: ‘Flip a Coin and Grow Up’

Famous Harvard University constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe has some advice for a lawyer and Rhode Island officials feuding over who gets to argue an Indian land case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Asked for his opinion, Tribe told the Providence Journal that former solicitor general Theodore Olson is the better choice, and only “childish and selfish” reasons would prevent him from arguing.

Rhode Island’s governor and attorney general want Olson to argue the case, but lawyer Joseph Larisa Jr. says he has handled the case for 10 years and he should get to argue it. Larisa represents the city of Charlestown, and it supports him.

“The obvious solution is for Ted Olson to argue the case,” Tribe said. "But if they find that unpalatable, they should flip a coin and grow up.”

Tribe said familiarity with the case doesn’t make a lawyer best suited to argue it in the Supreme Court. “People often handle a case for 20 years and haven’t a clue what the Supreme Court wants to hear,” he told the Providence Journal.

Supporting Larisa in the dispute is the lawyer who won the landmark Second Amendment ruling on gun rights, Alan Gura. His win marked his first appearance before the court. “The idea that only a handful of lawyers can argue before the Supreme Court is great marketing,” he told the newspaper. “There is no substitute for knowledge of the record.”

Despite his views, he also supports a coin flip.

Hat tip to How Appealing.