Two weeks ago, a panel of Ninth Circuit judges held oral argument at UC Berkeley School of Law. In a Q&A session following the oral argument, the three Judges (Noonan, Thomas, and Bybee) were asked to comment on the Ninth Circuit's reversal rate at the Supreme Court. Boalt student Patrick Bageant was there, and he blogged the exchange over at Nuts & Boalts as follows:

  Judge Noonan: "Typical numbers are 20 out of the 16 thousand cases that come before this court. Who is worrying? It's like being struck by lightning."
  Judge Thomas: "Well, in that case I've been struck by lightning a time or two."

  Judge Thomas: "It's largely a media myth. But you just take the reputation, like Dennis Rodman."
  Judge Bybee: "We're the Dennis Rodman???"
  Judge Thomas: "Yeah, we're like the bad boys of the federal circuit."