Arnold & Porter's Lisa Blatt, speaking at a Legal Times Supreme Court event in 2011. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

It is relatively rare for U.S. Supreme Court justices to mention an amicus curiae brief during oral argument. But it almost never happens that a justice will identify the brief by the name of the lawyer who wrote it.

It occurred last month with a brief by UCLA Law School professor Richard Re. And it happened again on Wednesday during the high-profile argument in Trump v. Hawaii, the contentious dispute over the Trump administration's proclamation keeping certain categories of travelers from entering the United States.

Justice Stephen Breyer

Justice Stephen Breyer, exploring exceptions to the ban, asked U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco at one point during the argument about “families in the Lisa Blatt brief” who were trying to get to the United States for medical treatment and other reasons but were turned away.

As fleeting as it was, Breyer's reference to Blatt, a veteran advocate who leads Arnold & Porter's appellate and Supreme Court practice, is a nearly priceless compliment within the Supreme Court community—and not just because of its rarity. It also conveys the court's comfort level with her work and signals that she is so well-known that her name alone can be a shorthand identifier.