When law professor Marin Levy served as a clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, she first encountered the court’s unique “non-argument calendar” utilized for certain immigration cases. This prompted her to question whether other circuits employed similar mechanisms, but comprehensive information was scarce. “It was a clerk of court at the time who summed this up by saying that what we don’t know about the other courts far exceeds what we do [know],” Levy, now a Duke University School of Law professor, noted at a recent Supreme Court Historical Society event.
Another notable example comes from the Ninth Circuit, which stands out for its rule encouraging lawyers to voice complaints regarding case delays. Judge Jon Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit highlighted this in a discussion about the varying procedural norms among federal appellate courts.
Further insights into these unique local rules can be found here.