My morning distraction was reading the Hatch-Waxman 25th Anniversary Trivia by Kurt Karst. My favorite part is the exchange between Judge Roger W. Titus, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, and Gerald C. Kell from the Department of Justice (December 21, 2006) in Biovail Corporation. v. FDA:
THE COURT: [After asking detailed questions about the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.] All right. There’s a special place in Hell where they torture people who write things like this. For 14 years I was on the Rules Committee of Maryland’s Court of Appeals that didn’t have as many subsections as this, so I would flunk the person who gave me this as a draft rule. I would say this is 50 rules.
Anyway, I wanted to wander into the right place of this endless section. When I first went to Westlaw and said, just give me section 355, it had to tell me it was going to be 85 pages. I said, no, no, no, no. Let’s try (j), and I get this huge thing here.
ATTORNEY: Well I hope that our brief lays out the precise subsections, Your Honor. I believe it does. But that is the sum of my argument, unless the court has any further questions.
THE COURT: No. You’ve been very helpful. I’m glad to have somebody here who knows what they’re talking about.
ATTORNEY: So am I, Your Honor. It’s just not me. Thank you.
THE COURT: Thank you.
