I’m sure it’s just a scrivener’s error, but Hervey Lemeli, Docket No. 21054-21S, filed 8/12/22, gives me a chance to fire another broadside into Mandy Mobley Li, 22 F. 4th 1014 (DC Cir, 2022). That was the case where DC Cir called upon two (count ’em, two) attorneys, whose affiliations and qualifications, and whose stake in the outcome, were not immediately apparent, to explain Section 7623.

I thought Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Judges were adept at unscrambling Federal law without the assistance of passersby.

But I must print a correction. Unless there are two or more persons named Mandy Mobley Li, I mischaracterized Mandy Mobley as “obviously hapless” in my blogpost “Repeal Section 7623,” 7/8/22. A source informs me that Mandy Mobley has a J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law, an M.B.A. from the MIT Sloan School of Management, and an S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mandy Mobley is also a 2022 Presidential Management Fellows Finalist. This makes the entire case even more perplexing.

Clearly credentialed counsel on both sides, so why go to the bullpen, much less to the bleachers? Surely DC Circuit can deal with Section 7623 their own selves.

Howbeit, today IRS has a motion to swap out an attorney. But it’s labelled as a motion to withdraw as counsel, as if OCC were bailing on the whole case. Maybe that’s what happened in Li.

Ch J Kathleen (“TBS = The Big Shillelagh”) Kerrigan put it right.

“…respondent filed a document designated as a Motion to Withdraw as Counsel. However, the filing is more akin to a motion to withdraw counsel, insofar as respondent requests that MYC, who…filed respondent’s Motion to Dismiss for Lack of Jurisdiction, be withdrawn as counsel for respondent in this case. There is no objection to the granting of the Motion.” Order, at p. 1. (Name omitted).

So Ch J TBS recharacterizes appropriately, and MYC is auf’d. OCC stays in.