A University of Virginia law professor earned rare kudos from the U.S. Supreme Court bench Friday for offering the justices a “new” argument that questioned their authority to review decisions of the military’s top appellate court.

In Ortiz v. United States, Justice Elena Kagan, writing for a 7-2 majority, devoted 19 pages of her 25-page opinion to the jurisdictional question and professor Aditya Bamzai’s argument, which she called “serious and deserving of sustained consideration.”