No, Judge James S (“Big Jim”) Halpern is not suggesting that George E. Joseph, 27759-15, filed 8/30/18, depart from the strictest level of propriety.

It’s just that George’s seriatim opening brief (seriatim is one after the other, as opposed to simultaneous) has some hyperlinks to exhibits, and IRS objects. Some exhibits aren’t in the record (and you can’t wild-card stuff in via a brief), and some of those hyperlinked have notations on them not on those that were in evidence.

So to cool this hyper situation down, Judge Halpern runs a phoneathon, and sends George (and us) a designated hitter. George shall give IRS and Judge Halpern the thumb.

“The Court and the parties agreed that petitioner submitting a thumb drive with a copy of his brief hyperlinked to copies of the exhibits in evidence would be helpful to all. The Court will give petitioner leave (1) to file an amended brief, unaccompanied by exhibits, and (2) to provide the Court and respondent with a thumb drive containing an electronic copy of the amended brief with hyperlinks to electronic copies of the exhibits received into evidence, also contained on the thumb drive. The Court will strike from the record the five files containing exhibits….” Order, at p. 1.

And everyone gets more briefing time.

Of all the obsolete media floating around, the thumb drive is my least favorite, although I use it for backing up. They’re so easy to misplace or lose. Surely a PDF of the documents can be furnished via Dropbox or similar cloud formations.