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