NADR at SCOTUS

NADR President, Phil Litteral, Standing in front of The Supreme Court

A Note from the President

NADR on site for 12/4/2018 SCOTUS oral arguments, Biestek v. Berryhill

I had the unexpected, rare, and humbling experience this month of observing NADR take part in a new form of advocacy.

Submitting an ‘Amicus Curiae’ brief to the Supreme Court moves NADR, as an organization, squarely into the THIRD BRANCH of lobbying for our Members and their clients. Within about a month we have submitted this brief to the SCotUS (judicial), will meet with Senate and House staff on Capitol Hill (legislative), and will meet with SSA Deputy Commissioners at their headquarters in Woodlawn, MD (executive). A unique “trifecta” for our lobbying efforts.

No matter what you think of the merits of the Biestek case, or the prospect of moving ANY disability case to this level, it cannot be argued that NADR is not there, in the trenches for our Members, helping to promote the best possible spin on process and outcomes. All the work -- from inviting NADR in to the process (Fred Daley), to serving as lead attorney and resource person (Karl Osterhout), to gathering data and composing arguments (Wilkinson, Walsh, and Eskovits) – has been provided graciously and at no cost to our Members! Extra special thanks to Chanakya Sethi of WW/E for outstanding research for and composition of our brief. It’s available in the recent Legislative Newsletter if you haven’t read it.

Awe inspiring, this process has provided new insight into, and respect for, our democratic process that will serve our industry well for years to come.

Thanks to the associates of WW/E -- who not only crafted the language for our brief, but also got us “tickets” to the oral arguments -- Karl and I were privileged to sit in this most esteemed room in the land and observe. And there they were: Neil Gorsuch,

Sonia Sotomayor, Stephen Breyer, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Samuel Alito, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh. That’s the order in which they sit, left to right, with seniority on The Court dictating placement. Daley, former NADR Director at Large, sat at the plaintiff’s table. His associate, Meredith Marcus, in the rows of support staff directly behind.

As I pointed out to our Management team, I thought Ishan Bhabha (plaintiff’s lead attorney) got absolutely slaughtered by the caustic wit of the Justices, until Anthony Yang stood up for SSA and was absolutely murdered! Thirty minutes Bhabha, thirty minutes Yang, five minutes Bhabha, NEXT CASE!

For the most part you can’t move, talk, leave or yawn during the session, so we got to sit through the second case as well, (some inane patent issue). All in all, the process is grueling and sans any obvious “political bias”.

So Biestek either won or lost. Or maybe won with a very narrow ruling only applicable to this one case. We will see, and will share the outcome with you, our Members. When I said before that I didn’t see this honor coming, I had no idea what an eyeopening experience it would be – a once in a lifetime opportunity to promote the NADR brand and position. Sitting before these nine most venerable arbiters, we once again got the chance to …. “Be NADR!”

Philip Litteral, NADR President

NADR NEWS | FOURTH QUarter QUARTER 2018 3