Judge Merrick Garland’s opening lines of an opinion Tuesday shouldn’t have startled any reader: “In 1992, Vincent Gambini taught a master class in cross-examination. Trial counsel for the National Labor Relations Board and the National Union of Healthcare Workers apparently paid attention.”

Garland’s footnote gives it away but, of course, Gambini is the namesake in the classic 1992 comedy “My Cousin Vinny.” Joe Pesci starred as Vinny the lawyer, defending a cousin and a friend who are falsely accused of murder in Alabama.