Pete Patterson

Thanks to SCOTUSblog for publishing my piece on birthright citizenship. scotusblog.com/2026/03/the-14…

I enjoyed arguing before the en banc Third Circuit today on the scope of the Second Amendment “sensitive places” doctrine. www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/oralargument/a…

Thanks to SCOTUSblog for publishing my piece on why the Black Codes should not be used to define our constitutional rights: scotusblog.com/2026/02/the-bl…

@ChairmanAlex Way to strut your stuff!

IYKYK 😉 🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I am pleased to join my C&K colleagues Chuck Cooper and Brad Larson in filing an amicus brief in Trump v. Barbara (the birthright citizenship case) on behalf of Senator Eric Schmitt and Representative Chip Roy. supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25/2…

Thanks to Haley Proctor and SCOTUSblog for inviting me to be interviewed on Second Amendment issues: scotusblog.com/2026/01/litiga…

@cjscalia @AnthonyEsolen Was going to be my answer

@AnthonyEsolen Eric Davis! mlb.com/news/eric-davi…

Baseball's great COULD HAVE BEENS: 1. Ray Chapman 2. Herb Score 3. Cecil Travis 4. Sam McDowell 5. Denny McLain 6. Darryl Strawberry 7. Smokey Joe Wood 8. Al Rosen 9. Jim Perry 10. Garry Templeton Honorable mention: Gary Peters, Jim Wynn, Chris Carpenter, Willie Wilson, Bill Monbouquette, Jim Bouton, Roy Sievers ... Some of these guys were held back by stupid management: Perry, Carpenter; some were injured, most tragic among them Ray Chapman, the only man to suffer a fatal injury in a Major League game, beaned by submariner Carl Mays, with a dirty ball on a gray day; some were done in by their own bad habits: McDowell, McLain, Strawberry; some just didn't use their talents in the smartest way: Templeton, Wilson. For every player in the Hall of Fame, there are, I think, six or seven who, with a decent break or two, or with stronger discipline or smarter management, could have had a Hall of Fame career. Good luck and bad luck play their roles, sometimes in surprising ways. Stan Musial would have been a pitcher, EXCEPT he got hurt -- which was the best thing that could have happened to him, as it turned out. One of the characteristics of a savvy manager (Whitey Herzog, Tony LaRussa, Bobby Cox) is that he can spot talent and figure out a way to use it to best effect. You can tell it when somebody has a fair-to-middling career and then suddenly breaks out as a star when the smart manager nabs him. That's what Herzog did with Ozzie Smith as a hitter; and with Joaquin Andujar, John Tudor, many others. Lou Brock was languishing with the Cubs, but Johnny Keane focused on what he COULD do, not what he couldn't, and made one of the most lopsided trades in MLB history. See also LaRussa's snagging Jim Edmonds for Adam Kennedy... Assuming that the basics are in place, good teachers run with what the student CAN do well, rather than frustrating him with what he doesn't care about...

@KannonShanmugam As a Bengals fan, it is hard to have much sympathy :)

Good morning from Boston. Please hug the Chiefs fan in your life today.

@MorosKostas Chuck Cooper and I had a WSJ op-ed on this a while back: wsj.com/opinion/why-tr….

On birthright citizenship, my opinion is that there is no way the expansive practice we have today - treating our country like an endzone in which you get citizenship so long as your mother evaded deportation long enough so you were born here - is what was ever intended. "Subject to the jurisdiction thereof" must mean we wanted to exercise such jurisdiction too, i.e., you are here with our consent. Children of legal immigrants and visa holders should get birthright citizenship, but not children of those here against our consent. All that said, no way SCOTUS actually rules this way, it's too politically toxic. They'll just rely on Wong Kim Ark and ignore the important distnction in that case. I hope I'm wrong.

I had the honor of arguing in the Ninth Circuit today, in the beautiful Richard H. Chambers Courthouse, on the question of whether California's ban on firearm suppressors violates the Second Amendment. ca9.uscourts.gov/media/video/?2…

@HowardMSklar Yes, it was me, thanks for the kind words!

@ppatterson85 If that was you in Sanchez (not sure if I got the right account)…IMHO, you did a fantastic job. I'm really interested to know…was saving the 1A analogy until the very end a strategic decision? Because it was powerful, and even seemed to get Bybee to get it!

Thank you to Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy Per Curiam for publishing my piece on facial challenges and the Second Amendment: journals.law.harvard.edu/jlpp/wp-conten…

@MorosKostas Viramontes also should go to 12/5

Possible reason x.com/2Aupdates/stat…

Duncan conference rescheduled. No, I don't know if this means anything at all in terms of cert likelihood.

@MorosKostas No gyro on there?

How to tell a burger place in LA is Greek-owned (or used to be): menu is absurdly large for no reason.

Always enjoy seeing one of my arguments picked up by @AudioArguendo

Great as always to team up with Erin Murphy on this.

I was pleased to argue before the en banc Third Circuit yesterday. The question presented was whether New Jersey can ban common semiautomatic firearms consistent with the Second Amendment.

@MorosKostas Thanks!

Another great job by @ppatterson85 and team. You can tell they are great at what they do because my normal impulse to backseat drive is kept in check. 🤣

A thread looking at our newly-filed en banc petition in Koons v. Platkin.

@jadler1969 Same here.

I can even remember the question!