UPDATED: At Justice’s Request, Stephen Hammer Argues First SCOTUS Case

A fourth-year associate in the Dallas office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher made his first oral argument at the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday when he defended a ruling by a lower court that neither the U.S. Justice Department nor the defendant in the case believe was correct.

The nation’s highest court appointed Stephen Hammer, a former clerk to U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts and a military veteran, to argue the merits of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s opinion about appellate filing deadlines related to removal orders if the defendant claims he will be killed or tortured if he is deported.