This quote is from yesterday’s decision by the District of Columbia Circuit in Trump v. Thompson, turning down Trump’s attempt to block the House of Representatives’ committee subpoena for White House records related to the January 6 insurrection. It relates to a minor point about the waiver of arguments:
In this court, “mentioning an argument in the most skeletal way, leaving the court to do counsel’s work, create the ossature for the argument, and put flesh on its bones is tantamount to failing to raise it.”
I had never seen the word “ossature,” though its meaning is evident from both the context and Latin root. In any case, it seems redundant. Once an argument is skeletal, isn't the ossature already there? And no, the quoted passage is not from a Judge Bruce Selya opinion; he is on the First Circuit. It is actually Judge Patricia Millett quoting her own opinion in Maloney v. Murphy (2020).
Ah, but it is from Judge Selya. See U.S. v. Zannino, 895 F.2d 1, 17 (1st Cir. 1990). It gets quoted all the time in the First Circuit. Perhaps Judge Millett forgot to cite?
I should have known, even though Judge Millett cited only to herself.