Court Opinion

ID: 9702687
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 23:21:06.402444+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:40.594183
License: Public Domain

LEVINE, Justice,
dissenting.
I am struck by the ineonsonance of the majority’s analysis of Rule 3.2, NDROC. Even if a prisoner’s request for oral argument must be granted under Rule 3.2, as the majority holds, Norman’s so-called “request” was buried in a document entitled “Response Back on Sue Leingang’s Response to Motion to Remove Minor Children From Guardian’s Home.” But, under Rule 3.2, there is no provision for, what is, in effect, a reply brief. On the one hand, the majority strictly construes the Rule to require a court to entertain a motion for oral argument by a prisoner who has been convicted of murder. On the other hand, the majority broadly construes Rule 3.2 to condone a reply brief as a vehicle to request oral argument even though the Rule does not authorize a reply brief. In my view, the trial court was not required to read a document that should not have been filed. Trial courts have enough to read. This one ought not be instructed by this court to read such a document in order to ferret out a request for oral argument.
I would reach the merits and affirm.