Now for some shameless promotion of the judge for whom I formerly clerked. Lest one think that he's uniformly results-oriented, Judge Reinhardt here joins Judge Thompson's opinion rather than Judge Berzon's dissent, notwithstanding the fact that -- as he explains in his concurrence -- Judge Reinhardt thinks that the result that the majority reaches is both bizarre and unwarranted. But, as he explains, that result is compelled by circuit precedent; hence, so be it.
That's simultaneously a compliment to Judge Reinhardt and a (tiny) backhanded slam on Judge Berzon. I mean, when you can't even get Judge Reinhardt to buy into your argument on behalf of an illegal alien in a criminal case, you gotta be doing something wrong.
