Back in December, the U.S. Supreme Court triggered an Internet squall when apparently peeved justices issued an order to show cause why Howard Shipley, a lawyer at Foley & Lardner in Washington, D.C., should not be disciplined.

His offense—though unstated by the court—was apparently the filing of a bizarrely framed petition for certiorari in a case in which his client Sigram Schindler was trying to save his patent.