‘My Cousin Vinny’ plays big role in Merrick Garland opinion

Thanks to Pam P for sending in this article from the ABA journal

BY DEBRA CASSENS WEISS

Cross-examination drawing on lessons of My Cousin Vinnyhelped undermine a nursing home operator’s claimed reason for firing several union organizers, according to a federal appeals court.

Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Merrick Garland—whose Supreme Court nomination failed after no vote was taken—wrote the March 5 opinion for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, report the National Law Journal and Above the Law.

“In 1992, Vincent Gambini taught a master class in cross-examination,” Garland wrote, with a footnote to My Cousin Vinny. “Trial counsel for the National Labor Relations Board and the National Union of Healthcare Workers apparently paid attention.”