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2025 Ninth Circuit Highlights: A Judge’s Video Dissent
On Dec. 18, Law360 published its review of key developments that spanned the appellate landscape in 2025, including each circuit’s most memorable events. John Fortin was interviewed and quoted for the section covering the Ninth Circuit. John’s quotes are provided below. (“Circuit-By-Circuit Guide To 2025’s Most Memorable Moments,” Law360, 12/18/2025)
NINTH CIRCUIT
Highlights: One of 2025’s most memorable moments not just in the Ninth Circuit but also the entire appellate realm occurred in March, when Judge VanDyke posted a nearly 20-minute video dissent to YouTube in a firearms case. “The way that you fire this handgun — the way you aim it — is you take it, and you line up these two sights, and you line them up on what you want to shoot at, and that’s how you hit what you’re aiming at,” Judge VanDyke said in the video while dressed in a black robe and brandishing a SIG Sauer P320. Writing separately, U.S. Circuit Judge Marsha S. Berzon, joined by five colleagues, declared that the “wildly improper video presentation warrants additional comment, lest the genre proliferate.” McDonald Carano LLP appellate lawyer John A. Fortin, who practices in the Ninth Circuit, told Law360 “there was a lot of backlash” to Judge VanDyke’s video, but that it wasn’t entirely novel. For instance, Justice Thomas in 2024 included firearm diagrams in a gun rights opinion, and some litigants have begun including links to explanatory videos in their briefs. Like it or not, it’s reasonable to expect more visuals in the TikTok era, Fortin added: “Video is a very powerful way to synthesize things in ways that maybe the written word is not well-suited for. And if the judges are doing it, then advocates will, too.”
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In 2024, McDonald Carano celebrated its 75ᵗʰ Anniversary of serving Nevada’s legal, business, government, and civic communities. More than 60 lawyers and government affairs professionals serve Nevada, national, and international clients from our offices in Reno, Las Vegas, and Carson City. McDonald Carano provides transactional, litigation, regulatory, and government affairs services to startups, corporations, private companies, trade associations, nonprofits, public entities, high-net-worth individuals, and family offices throughout Nevada. We are deeply committed to supporting local communities by volunteering our time, resources, and services, including pro bono legal services, to nonprofit organizations, charitable foundations, and public service entities. We are proud to be your Nevada law firm since 1949.
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